Bradbury Landing

Bradbury Landing – the Curiosity Rover Landing Site (August 14, 2012).
MSL debris field (August 17, 2012). Parachute landed 615 m (2,018 ft) away.[1] (3-D: rover/parachute)
Map of Gale Crater with Aeolis Mons rising in the middle of the crater.

Bradbury Landing is the August 6, 2012, landing site within Gale crater on planet Mars of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover. On August 22, 2012, on what would have been his 92nd birthday, NASA named the site for author Ray Bradbury, who had died on June 5, 2012.[2][3] The coordinates of the landing site on Mars are: 4°35′22″S 137°26′30″E / 4.5895°S 137.4417°E / -4.5895; 137.4417.[4][5]

The rover drove away from this specific landing location in the summer of 2012, but because of the nature of landing there is no actual lander there. The track prints and blast marks are slowly blowing away in the Martian wind, as recorded by Mars orbiters.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC-20120807 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Flood, Alison (August 23, 2012). "Curiosity Martian landing point named after Ray Bradbury". The Guardian. London. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  3. ^ Brown, Dwayne; Cole, Steve; Webster, Guy; Agle, D.C. (August 22, 2012). "NASA Mars Rover Begins Driving at Bradbury Landing". NASA. Archived from the original on November 15, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  4. ^ "Video from rover looks down on Mars during landing". NBC News. August 6, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  5. ^ Young, Monica (August 7, 2012). "Watch Curiosity Descend onto Mars". Sky and Telescope. Archived from the original on December 9, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2012.