HiRISE: Curiosity landing site over time

ESP_040269_1755Spacecraft that land in dusty areas of Mars create dark blast zone patterns where bright dust is blown away by the landing. Continued high-resolution monitoring with the HiRISE show these dark patterns fade over time in a surprising way.

These sequences of HiRISE images span two and a half years, during which time the rover has driven away from its initial touchdown location, leaving its tracks behind, which themselves fade over time. The parachute can also be seen flapping around in the wind near the backshell landing site. The landing sites of other spacecraft hardware (sky crane and heat shield) also show fading over this time, presumably because bright dust is settling on the surface and masking the blast zones. [More at links and here]

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