Photos: Mars Rover's Parachute Flaps in Wind

The parachute that helped NASA's Curiosity rover land on Mars last summer has subsequently changed its shape on the ground, based on photos from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This sequence of seven images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows wind-caused changes in the parachute as it lay on the Martian for months, following its landing of the Curiosity rover, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.

The images were taken by HiRISE between Aug. 12, 2012, and Jan. 13, 2013, and show the used parachute shifting its shape at least twice in response to wind.

Click here to see the changing images. 

Researchers have used HiRISE to study many types of changes on Mars. Its first image of Curiosity's parachute, not included in this series, caught the spacecraft suspended from the chute during descent through the Martian atmosphere.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Curiosity are managed by JPL.

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

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