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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions 2 min read
Sols 4458-4460: Winter Schminter
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captured this image of the Texoli butte, a Martian landmark about 525 feet (160 meters) tall, with many layers that scientists are studying to learn more about the formation of this region of the Red Planet. The butte is on the 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed and has been exploring since 2012. The rover acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on sol 4456, or Martian day 4,456 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, on Feb. 17, 2025, at 17:51:56 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025
During today’s unusual-for-MSL Tuesday planning day (because of the U.S. holiday on Monday), we planned activities under new winter heating constraints. Operating Curiosity on Mars requires attention to a number of factors — power, data volume, terrain roughness, temperature — that affect rover operability and safety. Winter means more heating to warm up the gears and mechanisms within the rover and the instruments, but energy that goes to heating means less energy for science observations. Nevertheless, we (and Curiosity) were up to the task of balancing heating and science, and planned enough observations to warm the science team’s hearts.
We fit in DRT, APXS, and MAHLI on two different bedrock targets, “Chumash Trail” and “Wheeler Gorge,” which have different fracturing and layering features. In the workspace, ChemCam targeted a clean vertical exposure of layered bedrock at “Sierra Madre” and a lumpy-looking patch of resistant nodules at “Chiquito Basin.”
The topography of the local terrain and our end-of-drive position after the weekend fortuitously lined up to give us a view of an exposure of the Marker Band, which we first explored on the other side of Gediz Vallis Ridge. Having a view of another exposure of this distinctive horizon helps give us further insight into its origin, so we included both RMI and Mastcam mosaics of the exposure.
Documenting a feature that, unlike the Marker Band, has been and will be in our sights for a long time — “Texoli” butte (pictured above) — was the goal of additional Mastcam and ChemCam imaging. Observations of potential sedimentary structures on the flank of Texoli motivated acquisition of an RMI mosaic, and a chance to capture structures along its southeast face inspired a Mastcam mosaic. Good exposures of additional nearby bedrock structures at “Mount Lukens” and “Chantry Flat” drew the eye of Mastcam, while another small mosaic focused on the kind of linear troughs in the sand we often see bordering bedrock slabs. Environmental observations included Navcam cloud and dust-devil movies, Mastcam observations of dust in the atmosphere, and REMS and RAD measurements spread across the three sols of the plan.
Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
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Last Updated Feb 20, 2025 Related Terms
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Rodent Research-28 fluorescein angiogram of the microvascular circulation of the mouse retina.Image courtesy: Oculogenex Inc. Key Takeaways
A total of 361 publications were collected in FY-24. These publications include peer-reviewed scientific studies or other literature such as books and patents published recently or years prior. More than 80% of the publications collected in FY-24 were from research sponsored by NASA and JAXA. In FY-24, the predominant area of study for publications was Earth and Space science. The results obtained were primarily generated via Derived Results, studies that retrieve open data from online sources to make new discoveries. These Derived publications indicate a 39% return on investment. A total of 4,438 publications have been gathered since the beginning of station, and about 16% of this literature has been published in top-tier journals. The year-over-year growth of top-tier publications has been greater than the growth of regular publications. In 13 years, there was a 22% growth of top-tier publications and a 0.47% growth of regular publications. Almost 80% of top-tier results have been published in the past seven years. Station research continues to surpass national and global standards of citation impact. This year, a simplified hierarchy map showing the nested categories of station disciplines, subdisciplines, and selected keywords is presented to represent the more than 15,000 topic key words generated by the studies. Station research has seen a remarkable growth of international collaboration since its first days of assembly in 1999. Currently, about 40% of the research produced by station is the result of a collaboration between two or more countries. To date, the United States has participated in 23% of international collaborations. Of the nearly 4,000 investigations operated on station since Expedition 0, approximately 59% are identified as completed. From this subset of completed investigations, studies directly conducted on station rather than Derived Results have produced the most scientific results. This pattern differs from analyses conducted with all publication data. Introduction
The International Space Station is a state-of-the art laboratory in low Earth orbit. Since the year 2000, distinguished researchers from a myriad of disciplines around the world have been sending equipment and investigations to station to learn how space-related variables affect the human body, plant and microbial life, physical processes, equipment function, and more. Sophisticated remote sensing techniques and telescopes attached to station also observe the Earth and the universe to enhance our understanding of weather patterns, biomass changes, and cosmic events.
Investigations can be operated remotely from Earth with ground control support, directly on station with the help of crew members, or autonomously (without human assistance). The most recent science conducted on station has engaged private astronauts to advance the research endeavors of the commercial sector. The improvement of these science operations (i.e., how data is collected and returned) has led to more reliable scientific results. Additionally, extensive domestic and international collaboration bridging academic institutions, corporations, and funding agencies has produced high quality and impactful research that inspires new generations of students, researchers, and organizations looking to solve problems or innovate in emerging fields.
The studies highlighted in this report are only a small, representative sample of the research conducted on station in the past 12 months. Many more groundbreaking findings were reported in fiscal year 2024 (FY- 24), including:
Plant adaptation through the adjustment of regulatory proteins, which can lead to sustainable food production on the Moon and Mars (BRIC-LED-001). A connection between downregulated mitochondrial gene pathways and neurotransmitter signaling dysfunction that could assist the development of new pharmaceutical or nutritional therapies to prevent strength loss in neuromuscular disorders. (Microbial Observatory-1). The precise measurement of hydrogen isotopes to provide a better assessment of dark matter (AMS-02). The adaptation of a permanent flow cytometer in space that enables the examination of blood counts, hormones, enzymes, nucleic acids, proteins, and biomarkers to assess crew health in real time (rHEALTH). The behavior of oil-in-water drops in microgravity (i.e., oil drops grow over time, but drop displacement decreases). Understanding the behavior of oils, dyes, and detergents can lead to a safer environment and sustainability of emulsion technologies in the food, pharmaceutical, paint, and lubrication industries (FSL Soft Matter Dynamics-PASTA). Fundamental and applied research conducted on station improves the state of scientific understanding. Whether it is through the examination of microgravity and radiation effects, or through the testing of countermeasures, new materials, and computing algorithms; the hard work of integrating flight operations with scientific objectives is carried out to protect our planet, improve our health, and learn more about our place in the universe.
The following pages aim to demonstrate how station is revolutionizing science through cooperation, curiosity, and ingenuity. Projects that may have begun as simple ideas are now shaping the way we think about and operate in space to advance our goal of going to the Moon and beyond.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli poses in front of the Kibo laboratory module’s Advanced Plant Habitat housing tomato plants for an experiment investigating how the plant immune system adapts to spaceflight and how spaceflight affects plant production. NASA ID: iss070e073612.Credits: NASA Bibliometric Analyses: Measuring Space Station Impacts
Literature associated with space station research results (e.g., scientific journal articles, books, patents) is collected, curated, and linked to investigations. The content from these publications is classified based on how the results are obtained. The current classifications are:
Flight Preparation Results – publications about the development work performed for an investigation or facility prior to operation on space station. Station Results – publications that provide information about the performance and results of an investigation or facility as a direct implementation on station or on a vehicle to space station. Derived Results – publications that use open data from an investigation that operated on station. Access to raw data for new researchers expands global knowledge and scientific benefits. Related – publications that indirectly lead to the development of an investigation or facility. To date, over 2,200 publications have been identified as Related. This count of Related publications is not included in the analyses presented in this report.
Projects taking place on station (facilities or investigations) are assigned to one of six science disciplines:
Biology and Biotechnology: Includes plant, animal, cellular biology, habitats, macromolecular crystal growth, and microbiology. Earth and Space Science: Includes astrophysics, remote sensing, near-Earth space environment, astrobiology, and heliophysics. Educational and Cultural Activities: Includes student-developed investigations and competitions. Human Research: Includes crew healthcare systems, all human-body systems, nutrition, sleep, and exercise. Physical Science: Includes combustion, materials, fluid, and fundamental physics. Technology Development and Demonstration: Includes air, water, surface, and radiation monitoring, robotics, small satellites and control technologies, and spacecraft materials. Facilities consist of the infrastructure and equipment on station that enable the research to be conducted (e.g., workstation “racks” containing power, data and thermal control, furnaces, crystallization units, animal and plant habitats). Investigations are research projects with one or multiple science objectives. Investigations may use a facility to execute the experiments. A publicly accessible database of space station investigations, facilities, and publications can be found in the Space Station Research Explorer (SSRE) website. Through bibliometric analyses, the examination of publications and citations in different categories, we learn about research productivity, quality, collaboration, and impact. These measurements allow our organization to identify trends in research growth to better plan and support new scientific endeavors. The analyses included in this report serve to answer questions related to fiscal year data and total publication data to promote research accountability and integrity and ensure benefits to humanity.
Station research produced in FY-2024
Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, we identified a total of 361 publications associated with station research. Of these 361 publications, 52 were published in Biology and Biotechnology, 176 in Earth and Space, 5 in Educational and Cultural Activities, 40 in Human Research, 56 in Physical Science, and 32 in Technology Development and Demonstration. This publication count broken out by research discipline and space agency is shown in Figure 1A. Of the 361 publications, 41 were classified as Flight Preparation Results, 178 as Station Results, and 140 as Derived Results. Because Derived Results are new scientific studies generated from shared data, derived science is an additional return on the investment entrusted to station. In FY-24, this return on investment was 39%; a 12% increase from FY-23. Figure 1B shows this publication data broken out by research discipline and publication type.
Figure 1A. A total of 361 publications were collected in FY-24. Over 80% of the publications reported results in Earth and Space, primarily from investigations associated with NASA and JAXA research. Figure 1B, A total of 361 publications were collected in FY-24. Most publications in Earth and Space came from Derived Results associated with NASA and JAXA research. These Derived Results demonstrate a return on investment of 39%, a 12% increase from FY-23. Overall growth, quality, impact, and diversity of station research
Growth: A total of 4,438 publications have been collected since station began operations with 176 publications (4%) from work related to facilities on station. In Figure 2A, we show the growth of both regular and top-tier science over the years. Top-tier publications are studies published in scientific journals ranked in the top 100 according to ClarivateTM (Web of ScienceTM)1, a global database that compiles readership and citation standards to calculate a journal’s Eigenfactor Score2 and ranking. Regular publications include literature published in sources that may be specific to microgravity research but are not ranked.
Our data shows that over a 13-year period from 2011 to 2023, regular publications grew 0.47% per year and top-tier publications grew 22% per year. Some of the subdisciplines that have experienced most growth from station research are astrophysics (707 publications), Earth remote sensing (266 publications), fluid physics (245 publications), and microbiology (214 publications).
Quality: About 16% of station results have been published in top-tier journals. However, in Figure 2B we zoom in to examine the growth of top-tier publications given their station science discipline, showing that almost 80% of top-tier research has been published in the past seven years. Currently, a total of 696 articles have been published in top-tier journals and about 53% of this total are Derived Results from Earth and Space science investigations.
Figure 2A. Growth of regular and top-tier research publications over time. About 16% of station results have been published in top-tier journals. Inset shows the growth of microgravity- and non-microgravity-specific sources used in regular publications. Figure 2B. Growth of top-tier research publications by station research discipline (n = 696). There has been a significant
increase of top-tier articles published since 2018, with a little over 50% emerging from Derived Results in Earth and Space
science. Table inset shows the top-tier journals with most station research published. Impact: Previous analyses have demonstrated that the citation impact of station research has superseded national and global standards since 2011 (See Annual Highlights of Results FY-2023). This pattern continues today.
Diversity: Station science covers six major science disciplines, 73 subdisciplines, and thousands of topic keywords within each subdiscipline. A precise visualization of such abundant diversity would be overwhelming and impenetrable. However, plotting a few topic keywords within each sub-discipline succinctly shows the breadth of science station has to offer (Figure 3). For a better appreciation of station’s diversity, see the interactive hierarchy diagram online. Note that some topics, such as radiation, are studied from multiple perspectives (e.g., radiation measurement through physical science, radiation effects through human research, and shielding through technology development). Topic keywords were obtained using ClarivateTM (Web of ScienceTM).1
Station research collaboration
Previous analyses have shown the growth of collaboration between countries throughout the years based on co-authorship (See Annual Highlights of Results FY-2023). In a new analysis conducted with country data obtained through Dimensions.ai3 (n = 3,309 publications), we calculated that about 40% of the publications produced from station research are collaborations between several countries, and about 60% are intercollegiate collaborations within individual countries. As seen in the space agency networks in Figure 4, the United States participates in approximately 23% of the collaborations with other countries, making it the most collaborative country.
Figure 4: Country collaboration in station research based on publication co-authorship. Networks include up to five countries collaborating in an investigation. Nodes and links from countries that published their research independently are not included. From research ideas to research findings
Nearly 4,000 investigations have operated since Expedition 0; with a subset of 2,352 investigations (approximately 59%) marked as complete. These completed investigations have concluded their science objectives and reported findings. In Figure 5, we show the citation output from publications exclusively tied to completed investigations. In this Sankey diagram, Times Cited corresponds to the count of publications with at least one citation in each publication type (Station Results, Flight Preparation Results, and Derived Results). This citation count adequately parallels the total number of citations per publication and allows the visualization of a comprehensible chart. This analysis demonstrates that most completed investigations have reported results directly from studies conducted on station, followed by studies conducted in preparation to go to space, and finally by studies derived from open science available online. Likewise, results obtained straight from station receive more citations (e.g, over 46,000) than Flight Preparation (3,636 citations) or Derived results (936 citations). This pattern differs from analyses including all publication data in Figures 1 and 2.
Linking Space Station Benefits
Space station research results lead to benefits for human exploration of space, benefits to humanity, and the advancement of scientific discovery. This year’s Annual Highlights of Results from the International Space Station includes descriptions of just a few of the results that were published from across the space station partnership during the past year.
EXPLORATION: Space station investigation results have yielded updated insights into how to live and work more effectively in space by addressing such topics as understanding radiation effects on crew health, combating bone and muscle loss, improving designs of systems that handle fluids in microgravity, and determining how to maintain environmental control efficiently. DISCOVERY: Results from the space station provide new contributions to the body of scientific knowledge in the physical sciences, life sciences, and Earth and space sciences to advance scientific discoveries in multi-disciplinary ways. BENEFITS FOR HUMANITY: Space station science results have Earth-based applications, including understanding our climate, contributing to the treatment of disease, improving existing materials, and inspiring the future generation of scientists, clinicians, technologists, engineers, mathematicians, artists, and explorers. References
1Journal ranking and Figure 5 data were derived from ClarivateTM (Web of ScienceTM). © Clarivate 2024. All rights reserved.
2West JD, Bergstrom TC, Bergstrom CT. The Eigenfactor MetricsTM: A Network approach to assessing scholarly journals. College and Research Libraries. 2010;71(3). DOI: 10.5860/0710236.
3Digital Science. (2018-) Dimensions [Software] available from https://app.dimensions.ai. Accessed on October 10, 2024, under license agreement.
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions 2 min read
Sols 4454-4457: Getting Ready to Fill the Long Weekend with Science
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, which includes the pyramid-shaped rock at left in the photo, the science target dubbed “Pyramid Lake,” using its Left Navigation Camera. The rover acquired the image on sol 4452, or Martian day 4,452 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, on Feb. 13, 2025, at 14:22:06 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 14, 2025
Curiosity is continuing to make progress along the strategic route, traversing laterally across the sulfate (salt) bearing unit toward the boxwork structures. The team celebrated the completion of another successful drive when we received the downlink this morning, and then we immediately got to work thinking about what’s next. There is a holiday in the United States on Monday, so instead of the typical three-sol weekend plan, we actually planned four sols, which will set us up to return to planning next Tuesday.
The first sol of the plan focuses on remote sensing, and we’ll be taking several small Mastcam mosaics of features around the rover. One of my favorite targets the team picked is a delightfully pointy rock visible toward the left of the Navcam image shown above. The color images we’ll take with Mastcam will give us more information about the textures of this rock and potentially provide insight into the geologic forces that transformed it into this comical shape. The team chose what I think is a very appropriate name for this Martian pyramid-shaped target — “Pyramid Lake.” The terrestrial inspiration behind this name is a human-made reservoir (lake) near Los Angeles with a big (also human-made) pyramidal hill in it.
On the second sol of the plan, we’ll use the instruments on Curiosity’s arm to collect data of rock targets at our feet, including “Strawberry Peak,” a bumpy piece of bedrock, “Lake Arrowhead,” a smooth piece of bedrock, and “Skyline Trail,” a dark float rock. ChemCam will also collect chemical data of Skyline Trail, “Big Tujunga” — which is similar to Strawberry Peak — and “Momyer.” We’ll also take the first part of a 360-degree color mosaic with Mastcam!
In the third sol of the plan, we’ll complete the 360-degree mosaic and continue driving to the southwest along our strategic route. The fourth sol is pretty quiet, with some atmospheric observations and a ChemCam AEGIS. Atmospheric observations are additionally sprinkled throughout other sols of the plan. This time of year we are particularly interested in studying the clouds above Gale crater!
I’m looking forward to the nice long weekend, and returning on Tuesday morning to see everything Curiosity accomplished.
Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Last Updated Feb 17, 2025 Related Terms
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions 2 min read
Sols 4452-4453: Keeping Warm and Keeping Busy
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the science targets before it, including “Catalina Island,” the flat rock at image center, using its Left Navigation Camera. The rover captured the image on sol 4450 — or Martian day 4,450 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Feb. 11, 2025, at 13:11:14 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025
I woke up this morning to my weather app telling me it felt like minus 15° C (5°F) outside. On days like this, it can take me a little longer to get myself up and out into the world. Curiosity has a similar problem — as we head toward winter and it gets colder and colder in Gale Crater, Curiosity has to spend more time warming up to do things like driving and all our good science. I’ve also been watching a couple winter storms that are expected in the next few days here in Toronto. Luckily, Curiosity doesn’t have to deal with snowstorms, and our drive in the last plan went ahead as planned and put us in a good position to go ahead with contact science today, a relief after having to forego it on Monday.
The contact science location that the geology team chose is called “Catalina Island,” the flat rock you can see in almost the center of the image above. As you can likely also see above, there’s a whole jumble of rocks in that image, and Mastcam and ChemCam have picked out a couple others to take a look at. These are “Point Dume,” which will be the target of ChemCam’s laser spectrometer, and “Whittier Narrows,” on which Mastcam will image some linear features. Mastcam and ChemCam are also turning their gazes further afield for Mastcam targets “Cleghorn Ridge,” “Cuyamaca Peak,” “Kratka Ridge,” and two long-distance ChemCam mosaics of the top of the Wilkerson butte and a spot a little further down known as “Pothole Trail.”
Much like I’m keeping an eye out the window on the changing weather here, Curiosity is also continuing to keep an eye on the environment in Gale Crater. Even though it’s not the dusty season, we continue to monitor the dust around us and in the atmosphere with a dust-devil survey and a tau. But we’re especially interested in what the clouds are up to right now, which we’re checking in on with our normal zenith and suprahorizon movies, and our cloud-season-only Phase Function Sky Survey. This is a series of movies covering the whole sky that we can use to determine how sunlight interacts with the individual water-ice crystals in the clouds.
Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
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Last Updated Feb 14, 2025 Related Terms
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions 2 min read
Sols 4450-4451: Making the Most of a Monday
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of its brightly lit workspace and its right-front wheel in the shadows, perched on some tall rocks. The rover used its Right Front Hazcam (Front Hazard Avoidance Camera) to capture the image on sol 4449 — or Martian day 4,449 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — Feb. 10, 2025, at 10:44:45 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 10, 2025
Last Saturday around 20:00 Pacific Standard Time I saw a 22-degree halo encircling our mostly-full Moon and Mars; an entire planet hanging in the sky between our Moon and the atmospheric phenomenon. As I took in the view I wondered what our rover was doing at that moment… turns out the Sun had just risen over Gale crater and Curiosity was still asleep, waiting for her alarm to go off in about 2.5 hours for another full day of science.
She wouldn’t start the weekend’s drive until Monday morning about 1:30, while I was still asleep waiting for my alarm to sound at 5:15. The drive’s data arrived on Earth about 5:30, and told us we drove until our time-of-day limit for driving — stopping about 36 meters (about 118 feet) away from Friday’s location. Unfortunately, our right-front wheel was shown to be perched on some tall rocks and we couldn’t quantify the drop risk if we unstowed the arm. We decided to play it safe and keep the arm stowed instead.
Today’s two-sol plan would normally be in “nominal” sols — meaning we’d get a full day of science and a drive on the second sol — but due to some DSN downtime on Earth we moved our drive to the first sol, therefore switching to “restricted” sols a bit earlier than usual after our last soliday. Even though we couldn’t plan contact science, we’re making the most of our plan with almost 90 minutes of remote sensing. Mastcam will take an approximately 24-frame stereo mosaic of Wilkerson butte to the north, and ChemCam will shoot their laser at a rock in our workspace named “Carbon Canyon,” as well as three separate RMI mosaics! We’ll then attempt to drive until our time-of-day limit of about 15:00 local Gale time, hopefully getting us to a more stable spot on Wednesday for contact science. The second sol contains our usual dust-devil surveys with Navcam, atmospheric opacity measurements with Mastcam, and a blind LIBS on a piece of bedrock the rover chooses autonomously.
Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems
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Last Updated Feb 11, 2025 Related Terms
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