A heat shield underneath the rover package protected the lander from the heat and pressure of atmospheric entry as it plowed through the Martian air at thousands of kilometers per hour. Once the space probe had slowed enough, the heat shield was ejected, exposing the rover underneath. The Mars Descent Imager on the rover captured this astonishing shot of the heat shield a few seconds after it was ejected, and still only a few meters away. The shield then fell to the ground, impacting the surface of Mars just a few hundred meters from the landing site itself.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

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