One of the biggest bummers about Curiosity’s epic landing is that there was no news crew on the surface to catch footage of the descent. This full-resolution video of Curiosity touching down, from its own point of view, is the next best thing.
This isn’t the first video of Curiosity’s landing, but it’s probably one of the best. It’s the result of stringing together all the high-resolution shots the rover took on its descent to the surface — high-resolution shots that took a lot longer to get back to Earth than the initial thumbnails. If the video seems a bit choppy, it’s because Curiosity only took about four pictures per second. It might not be movie quality, but this is as close as you’ll get to experience what it’s like to land on Mars. [bookofjoe]