Raw Images: Heat Shield Hits Ground on Mars

On Friday, NASA released a series of images that shows the heat shield from the Mars Science Laboratory hitting the ground on Mars and raising a cloud of dust. (Aug. 17)

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  Science & Technology

[presto668]

London just spent $15 billion on the Olympics. Just sayin'.

[capelltim]

simply amazing. the amount of time and engineering masterminds it took to orchestrate the decent, landing, uploading images back to earth. Think about it, lots of time to create this. 340 million miles away, no easy task. Good Job NASA and JPL teams

[presto668]

Science and knowledge improve our species. Something you could use. Just sayin'.

[StormReflect]

He probably doesn't understand the need we have to leave our earth, we're using too much resources and soon our generations will suffer a lot.. If we don't find an alternative then our race is done within a few hundreds years

[Shawn Smith]

One does not preclude the other. We can take care of this planet, and must as it currently is the only one we have, and yet we can still explore the universe. Humanity can't stay on this planet forever.If we don't kill ourselves first, then to survive as a species, we must look to the long run and spread throughout the galaxy. These explorations are just the most basic baby steps needed in that long journey.

[Shawn Smith]

How much would you pay for the Universe?  /watch?v=j96a_bjfnyI

[Aaron Smith]

To understand what is inside, one must journey outside. To understand what is outside, one must journey inside. Gotta love the US science community...from physicists to physiologists. Glad to see Nasa thriving once again.

[Aaron Cohn]

Yet some people still feel that $2.5 billion is too much for a Mars mission that will last at least 2 years and probably reveal many interesting things about the past of Mars as well as the possible future of Earth. Hmm... answer cosmic questions, or see how fast Usain Bolt can run 100 meters? Choices, choices...