Curiosity Bids Goodbye to Heat Shield

This video of thumbnail images from the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the heat shield dropping away from the rover on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). It covers the first 25 seconds of MARDI observations as Curiosity descends toward the surface of Mars.

The video starts in darkness because there is no illumination inside the aeroshell. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS