NASA has relinquish astunning new imageof the landing website of the Opportunity wanderer on Mars on January 25 , 2004 .
We ’ve seen black - and - white images before , but this is the first time we ’ve construe it in coloration . The view was take by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment ( HiRISE ) television camera on NASA ’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) .
NASA described this landing as a “ hole in one ” because , by fortune , Opportunity came to rest in the middle of a crater 22 meters ( 72 feet ) across called Eagle Crater . It contemplate this area before moving on to the larger Victoria and Endeavour craters , having now travelled about 44 kilometers ( 27 miles ) across the Earth’s surface in 13 twelvemonth .
To shore on the surface , Opportunity used parachutes to slow down through the atmosphere before elephantine air bag inflate . This bounced the bird of passage across the open before come to a rest , and it then descended Allium tricoccum on a landing platform to commence its mission . This was quite dissimilar to the Curiosity rover in August 2011 , which was too large for this method and instead used a complex “ sky Hart Crane ” system .
In the top right hand of the image , choose on April 8 , 2017 , you could see the landing platform in the middle of Eagle Crater . At the bottom left is the backshell used to protect the wanderer on the direction to the ground and the parachute that slowed Opportunity ’s downslope . The backshell has a blasphemous tincture because the color of the expanse has been exaggerated .
“ The airbag - buffer lander , with Opportunity folded - up indoors , first hit Martian earth near the crater , then bounced and roll right into the crater , ” NASA say in adescriptionof the image . “ The lander structure was four Triangle , folded into a tetrahedron until after the airbags deflate . The triangular flower petal then opened , exposing the rover . A week afterward , the scouter drove off , and the landing place platform ’s job was done . ”
Opportunity shoot down three weeks after its matching wanderer , Spirit , which lost power in 2011 . However , the former is still go unassailable , and has returned some enchanting science to Earth in its lifetime , let in finding grounds for ancient water activity on Mars .
An vivification of Opportunity leaving the landing domiciliation in 2004 . NASA
