Gale Crater, Mars. This is the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission rover, Curiosity. Gale Crater is 154km in diameter. The elli

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Gale Crater, Mars. This is the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission rover, Curiosity. Gale Crater is 154km in diameter. The ellipse at top left is the predicted landing region, an area about 20km long and 7km wide. The rover, which weighs over 900 kilograms, has a robotic arm to collect samples and a camera on a metre tall mast. The MSL was launched on 26th November 2011 and is due to land on Mars on 6th August 2012 on a mission to determine if Mars is, or was ever, able to support microbial life. Image obtained using data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the Mars Express Orbiter, the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Viking Orbiter.

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Size: 2993px × 2923px
Photo credit: © NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ESA/DLR/FU BERLIN/MSSS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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