NASA-JPl / Reuters

This artist's concept depicts the moment that NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface

Barreling in from space at 13,000 mph before stopping a mere 25 feet above the ground would make anyone want to catch their breath, and NASAs Curiosity rover is no exception. Now that the Seven Minutes of Terror is over, the compact-car-sized biochemistry lab is spending its first two weeks doing the same thing you might do after stepping off a hair-raising roller coaster: making sure its parts are where theyre supposed to be and functioning correctly.

That means daily surprises, as technicians at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., raise antennas, activate cameras, and gradually bring systems on line. Among the early treats: 297 black-and-white thumbnail pictures, which NASA processed into a low-quality video showing the final two-and-a-half minutes of Curiositys stomach-churning plunge through the Martian atmosphere. The thumbnails, though grainy, show the protective heat shield dropping away, the bumps from the rovers parachute descent, and dust kicking up as cables lowered the rover to the Martian surface. Scientists expect to have a full-resolution video from Curiositys descent imager in a few days.

(PHOTOS: An Inside Look at the Mars Curiosity Rover)

The rover also sent a new postcard: the first full-color landscape image of Curiositys Gale Crater home, taken as part of a focus test to check one of the cameras mounted on the rovers mast. Until this week the camera, called the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI),hadnt moved its focal components since July 2011four months before Curiosity launched. Even now, with the mast still tucked horizontally atop the rovers front left shoulder, the cameras initial focus test offers a tempting glimpse of the north wall of the rim at Gale Crater.

But thats just a small taste of what this particular camera, one of 17 aboard Curiosity, will provide once the mast is lifted and extended, especially once the cameras clear dust covers lift away. Its so awesome because we can put this camera anywhere, says Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, which operates the camera. Up, down, within an inch of the soil, underneath the rover, anywhere. Itll extend up above the mast to give us the giraffes-eye view, or give us the oblique, dogs-eye view across the Martian surface. This camera can look wherever we want.

Many of this weeks most captivating images havent come from Curiosity but a high-resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, another player on NASAs robotic exploration team. One day after capturing a stunning shot of Curiosity parachuting towards Martian surface, the Orbiter executed an unusual 41-degree roll to deliver a fascinating crime scene image taken by a high-resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter some 186 miles above the surface. The view offers a look at the pimple-sized rover in relation to the locations where Curiositys heat shield, parachute, back shell, and ballyhooed sky crane crash-landed after dropping away from the rover during its descent.

(Cover Story: Live From Mars)

Simply put, theyre all in the same Gale Crater neighborhood. The heat shield is farthest from Curiosity, about three-quarters of a mile away. Both the back shell and sky crane wound up about four-tenths of a mile from the rover. Of particular visual interest is a jagged pattern in the Martian soil to one side of the downed sky crane. Those dark areas downrange are the disturbed dust, says Sarah Milkovich, a JPL scientist. Its the same pattern we see when we have meteorites forming impact craters on the surface of a planetary body. Since the impacts from the spacecrafts components kicked up plenty of dust as well, Milkovich says future images should have even greater resolution. The Orbiter will again aim its cameras at Gale Crater in a few days, possibly for color photos.

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After the Descent: Mars Rover Preps for Thrilling Expedition