PASADENA, Calif. — NASA's Curiosity rover has beamed back its first color photo from the ancient crater where it landed on Mars and a video showing the last 2 1/2 minutes of its white-knuckle dive through the Martian atmosphere, a sneak peek of a spacecraft landing on another world. The picture released Tuesday revealed a rust-tinged, pebbly landscape and the crater rim off in the distance. The six-wheel rover snapped the photo on the first day on the surface after touching down on Mars Sunday night. It took the shot with a camera at the end of its robotic arm, which remained stowed. As Curiosity plunged through the atmosphere, a video camera captured the final moments. Nearly 300 low-quality thumbnails were sent back on Monday, which NASA processed into a short video. As the video rolled on a big screen, scientists and engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory let out “oohs" and “aahs." The recording began with the protective heat shield falling away and ended with dust being kicked up as the rover was lowered by cables inside Gale Crater. It was a preview of a spacecraft touchdown on another planet, since it'll take some time before high-resolution frames are transmitted, depending on other priorities. — AP
