Photo: #This image provided by NASA Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, shows the first 360-degree color panorama taken on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover. The panorama was stitched together using thumbnail images taken by the rover's mast camera. Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on Mars on August 5, 2012 to begin a two-year mission.
Photo: #In this handout image provided by NASA and released on Aug. 8, 2012, are the first two full-resolution images of the Martian surface from the navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover's "head" or mast. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly ground. The topography of the rim is very mountainous due to erosion. The ground seen in the middle shows low-relief scarps and plains. The foreground shows two distinct zones of excavation likely carved out by blasts from the rover's descent stage thrusters.
Photo: #In this handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, a view of Mount Sharp is seen in the distance taken by NASA's Curiosity rover and transmitted to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Aug. 6, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif. The Rover is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and examining soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support microbes.
Photo: #From left, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission director Jennifer Trosper, Mars Descent Imager principal investigator Michael Malin, and MSL deputy project scientist Joy Crisp discuss an image sent by the Mars Rover Curiosity showing the heat shield falling away from the rover (not in photo) as it descends toward the Martian surface at a press conference on Aug. 6, 2012 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, NASA opened a new chapter in the history of interplanetary exploration when its $2.5 billion nuclear-powered robot Curiosity beamed back pictures from the surface of Mars.
Photo: #This NASA graphic shows an artist's rendering of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
Photo: #This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT.
Photo: #In this NASA photo, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team in the MSL Mission Support Area reacts after learning the the Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars and images start coming in at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Mars, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.
Photo: #NASA's Curiosity rover, formally known as the Mars Science Laboratory, heads for space on November 26, 2011 atop an Atlas 5 rocket from launch pad 41 at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Larger view
This image provided by NASA Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, shows the first 360-degree color panorama taken on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover. The panorama was stitched together using thumbnail images taken by the rover's mast camera. Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on Mars on August 5, 2012 to begin a two-year mission. (AP Photo/NASA)
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NASA rover sends back colorful picture of Mars


By ALICIA CHANG
AP Science Writer

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The photo-snapping rover Curiosity returned another postcard from Mars on Thursday — the first 360-degree color panorama of Gale Crater.

Scientists admired the sweeping vista — red dust, dark sand dunes and tan-hued rocks. In the distance was the base of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mountain rising from the crater floor, where the six-wheel rover planned to go.

"It's very exciting to think about getting there, but it is quite a ways away," said mission scientist Dawn Sumner of the University of California, Davis.

Though it's the sharpest view yet of the landing site, the panorama was stitched together from thumbnails while scientists waited for better quality pictures to be downloaded.

Since safely landing Sunday night, Curiosity has dazzled scientists with peeks of its new home that at first glance seems similar to California's Mojave Desert. The initial pictures were fuzzy and black-and-white.

Earlier this week, the rover raised its mast containing high-definition and navigation cameras that have provided better views.

Larger view
NASA's Curiosity rover captures Mars

"It's beautiful just to finally see the colors in the terrain," said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, who is part of the mission.

The car-size rover remained healthy and busy testing its various instruments. Several pebbles landed on the rover's deck next to its radiation sensor during the final seconds of landing as it was lowered to the ground, but project managers said the stones posed no risk.

Curiosity "continues to behave basically flawlessly," said mission manager Mike Watkins of the NASA Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission.

Over the weekend, the rover will take a break so its computers can get a software upgrade in a process similar to a laptop having periodic updates to its operating systems. The upgrade will take several days. Data download will continue during that time, but the rover won't be doing anything new.

During its two-year mission, the roaming laboratory will analyze rocks and soil in search of the chemical building blocks of life, and determine whether there were habitable conditions where microbes could thrive. As high-tech as Curiosity is, it can't directly look for past or present life; future missions would be needed to answer that question. Curiosity arrived on Mars Sunday night after traveling more than eight months and 352 million miles. Because of its heft, it couldn't land using air bags like its predecessors. Curiosity made a precision landing, relying on a heat shield, supersonic parachute, retrorockets and cables that lowered it inside Gale Crater.

Since the thrilling landing, the pace on the surface has been deliberately slower.

Curiosity is the most complex interplanetary rover ever designed, and engineers are taking their time performing health checkups. The rover will not make its first drive or move its robotic arm for weeks.

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