Curiosity rover landing: This time in HD

You've seen the $2.5 billion Mars rover Curiosity flawlessly land on the Red Planet. But you haven't seen it like this.

Folks, this is not your grandparent's moon landing video. Grainy, it's not. Instead, we've got full-resolution images, courtesy of the Mars descent imager that cataloged the landing from the jettison of the heat shield until touchdown.

It's the geek equivalent of a victory lap. The high-resolution images from NASA form this unofficial video made by visual effects producer Daniel Luke Fitch of the rover's landing. The highlight reel of high-definition images has captured the public's attention, with more than 500,000 views online so far.

And viewers just can't get enough of Mars madness, from their marriage proposals to NASA's Mohawk guy to their following Curiosity on Twitter.

In the hi-res video, the supersharp images show first the heat shield being jettisoned. Then Curiosity hovers over the planet, and you get a window seat as the surface of Mars grows larger as the craft nears the planet. Finally the rover sets down in the Gale Crater, creating a cloud of Martian dust.

For audio play-by-play, check out NASA's official hi-res video mashup from Curiosity, posted on Twitter:
http://d.yimg.com/nl/vyc/site/player.html#vid=30367014


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[pic] Beautiful. [pic] As close to being an astronaut as we're ever going to get.

that was dope!

cool.

mars is so far away

I had a dream I was an astronaut and I was on the moon...i was scared as !!...beng on the moon and seeing earth that far away, gtfo.

That was nice no doubt, but they spent $2.5 billion dollars and didn't buy a mic?

We've seen Mars a bunch of times, but we've never heard Mars before.

[pic]

Looks cool...

I dont think sound waves can travel in a vacuum or better yet in places where there is no oxygen.

the vacuum one is true, but you seriously think sound needs Oxygen in order to travel???

really cool video

Speak for yourself....

Looks like the desert....