Curiosity's target landing area

This image shows changes in the target landing area for Curiosity. The larger ellipse was the target area prior to early June 2012, when the project revised it to the smaller ellipse centered nearer to the foot of Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater.

The larger ellipse, 12.4 miles by 15.5 miles, was already smaller than the landing target area for any previous Mars mission, owing to this mission's techniques for improved landing precision. Continuing analysis after the Nov. 26, 2011, launch resulted in confidence in landing within an even smaller area, about 12 miles by 4 miles.

Landing will be the evening of August 5, 2012, Pacific Standard Time.