Like many people who dreamed of being an astronaut when they were kids, I’m pretty awestruck when it comes to anything NASA (and space in general). Because of that, I’ve been anxiously awaiting any updates from NASA concerning the Curiosity rover (MSL), the one-ton exploration vehicle that just landed on the surface of Mars.

We know that all of the images we’ve seen so far are just the beginning – NASA says that as soon as the rover’s mast is deployed and the high-res camera is set up, we’ll start receiving bigger, color images from the Martian surface.

Go ahead a call this a preliminary image too – or, set of images to be more exact. This 4 fps video just released by NASA/JPL shows the Curiosity’s descent to the surface of the Red Planet.

This stop-motion video shows 297 frames from the Mars Descent Imager aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface of Mars. These thumbnail images were received on Earth on August 6th, 2012, and cover the last two and a half minutes of descent.

It’s small and grainy – but amazing nonetheless. Check it out below: