Quote:
Originally Posted by pc
I think that if they were able to spot Curiosity landing with Reconnaissance Orbiter, their knowledge of Mars, orbiters science and technology and whole communication process is way more deeper than they are telling the public.
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We have two orbiting satellites going around Mars. One is part of the deep space network and is a relay station, i.e. low power transmissions go to it, it relays those back to earth. The other is a satellite that has been doing spectral scans of the surface. Both were near the landing zone on purpose so that they could possibly get pictures.
Cleo, we have used the orbiters to find older crashed stages, and, did find the Beagle (the UK lander that crashed) and confirmed it in late 2006 when the RO arrived.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/multimedia/images/ shows some of the pictures - including pictures of Spirit and Opportunity.