Parachute and Back Shell in 3-D . photonado

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Parachute and Back Shell in 3-D

This 3D, or stereo anaglyph, view shows the parachute and back shell that helped guide NASA's Curiosity to the surface of Mars. The view was produced from images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as the satellite flew overhead after landing. Viewing in 3D requires the traditional red-blue glasses, with red going over the left eye. The image pairs have large stereo-convergence angles, which means that height differences in the terrain appear exaggerated; for example, the slopes look about ten times steeper than they really are. This exaggeration is useful over very flat terrain such as landing sites. HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Image released by NASA on 2012-10-10 as catalog id PIA16209