Video: SpaceTraveller simulation of MSL’s seven minutes of terror

I posted previously about SpaceTraveller, a “solar system simulator and space mission visualizer program” under development by BINARY SPACE, which provides the Satellite Tracking Tool here and with whom I work to make the Virtual SpaceTV 3D animated news reports. That post included a video demonstrating a simulation of the Rosetta spacecraft as it maneuvered near Comet 67P/C-G.

Here is a new video showing a SpaceTraveller simulation of the famous ‘Seven Minutes of Terror’ as the  Mars Science Laboratory (i.e. the Curiosity rover) made its atmospheric entry, descent, and landing on Mars on August 6, 2012.

The trajectory, orientation and rotation data is derived from MSL’s sensors (with a certain time granularity). Trajectories for other objects than MSL (when not body-fixed to it) are approximate only (implemented manually).

For further info on SpaceTraveller, contact  info@binary-space.com.