Mars rover Opportunity visits heat shield impact site

[Mike Niendorff]

Mars rover Opportunity visits heat shield impact site
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/041228heatshield.html

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has returned this view of its discarded heat shield, which crashed to the planet's surface during the craft's descent and landing last January.



The image was taken during the rover's 325th martian day (December 22) and released by NASA on Tuesday.

The main structure from the successfully used shield is to the far left. Additional fragments of the heat shield lie in the upper center of the image. The heat shield's impact mark is visible just above and to the right of the foreground shadow of Opportunity's camera mast. This view is a mosaic of three images taken with the rover's navigation camera.

(larger image at site, can't get DU to parse link properly for some reason ... sorry)

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MDN