Mars rover Curiosity sends first high-res images back to Earth of Mars' Gale Crater

The $2.5 billion probe is on two-year mission to determine if Mars could have supported life.

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BY ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 2012, 2:25 PM

HANDOUT/REUTERS

In this image from NASA TV, shot off a video screen, one of the first images from a second batch of images sent from the Curiosity rover is pictured of its wheel after it successfully landed on Mars. The video screen was inside the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California August 5, 2012. REUTERS/Courtesy NASA TV/Handout

Curiosity, NASA’s Mars rover, didn’t waste much time before getting to work.

The rover, sent to determine whether the planet could have ever sustained life, landed early Monday. About two hours after landing, NASA said, Curiosity beamed its first high-resolution image back to Earth.

The black and white image shows a gravel field in Mars’ Gale Crater.

"Curiosity's landing site is beginning to come into focus," said John Grotzinger, project manager of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, in a statement. “The question is: Where does this gravel come from? It is the first of what will be many scientific questions to come from our new home on Mars."

Curiosity is on a two-year mission to analyze the environment of Mars for signs that it could have ever supported life on a microbial level.

HANDOUT/REUTERS

About two hours after landing on Mars and beaming back its first image, NASA’s Curiosity rover transmitted a higher-resolution image of its new Martian home, Gale Crater as seen in this photograph released by NASA August 6, 2012. Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, received the image, taken by one of the vehicle's lower-fidelity, black-and-white Hazard Avoidance Cameras – or Hazcams. The rover landed on the Martian surface shortly after 10:30 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday (1:30 a.m. EDT Monday/0530 GMT) to begin a two-year mission seeking evidence the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, NASA said. REUTERS/Courtesy NASA/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY)

The $2.5 billion probe landed at 1:32 a.m. EDT Monday – one minute later than expected – following a 36-week trip from Earth.

Curiosity survived what NASA calls “seven minutes of terror” after entering Mars’ atmosphere.

“We've got literally seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars,” engineer Tom Rivellini explained. “Going from 13,000 miles an hour to zero, in perfect sequence, perfect choreography, perfect timing, and the computer has to do it all by itself, with no help from the ground.”

If there’s even a small malfunction, Rivellini said, “it's game over.”

A chorus of cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena night after the rover signaled it had survived a harrowing plunge through the thin Mars atmosphere.

Minutes after the landing signal reached Earth, Curiosity beamed back the first black-and-white pictures from inside the crater showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the afternoon sun.

HANDOUT/REUTERS

"It looks like we landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful," said engineer Adam Steltzner, who led the team that devised the tricky landing routine.

It was NASA's seventh landing on Earth's neighbor; many other attempts by the U.S. and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars have gone awry.

abartkewicz@nydailynews.com

With wire services