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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 The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Sols 4396-4397: Roving in a Martian Wonderland
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Right Navigation Camera on Dec. 16, 2024 at 00:22:16 UTC — sol 4394, or Martian day 4,394 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Monday, Dec. 16, 2024
Over the weekend Curiosity continued her trek around the northern end of Texoli butte, taking in the beautiful views in all directions. Steep buttes reveal cross-sections through ancient sedimentary strata, while the blocks in our workspace contain nice layers and veins — a detailed record of past surface processes on Mars. Sometimes we get so used to our normal routine of rover operations that I almost forget how incredible it is to be exploring ancient sedimentary rocks on another planet and seeing new data every day. Curiosity certainly found a beautiful field site!
But the challenges are a good reminder of what it takes to safely explore Mars. We had hoped that the weekend drive could be extended a little bit using a guarded driving mode (using auto navigation), but the drive stopped early during the guarded portion. Because the drive stopped short, we did not have adequate imaging around all of the rover wheels to fully assess the terrain, which meant that unfortunately Curiosity did not pass the Slip Risk Assessment Process (SRAP) and we could not use the rover arm for contact science today. The team quickly pivoted to remote sensing, knowing there will be other chances to use the instruments on the arm in upcoming plans.
Today’s two-sol plan includes targeted science and a drive on the first sol, followed by untargeted remote sensing on the second sol. The Geology and Mineralogy Theme Group planned ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam on a target named “Avalon” to characterize a dark vein that crosscuts the bedrock in our workspace. Then Curiosity will acquire two long-distance RMI mosaics to document the first glimpse of distant boxwork structures, and a view of the top of Mount Sharp from this perspective. This Martian wonderland includes a lot of beautiful sedimentary structures and fractures, so the team planned Mastcam mosaics to assess a stratigraphic interval that may contain more climbing ripples, another mosaic to characterize the orientation of fractures, and a third mosaic to look at veins and sedimentary layers. Then Curiosity will drive about 50 meters (about 164 feet) to the southwest, and will take post-drive imaging to prepare for planning on Wednesday. The second sol is untargeted, so GEO added an autonomously selected ChemCam LIBS target. The plan includes standard DAN and REMS environmental monitoring activities, plus a dust-devil movie and Navcam line-of-sight observation to assess atmospheric dust.
I was on shift as Long-Term Planner today, so in addition to thinking about today’s plan, we’re already looking ahead at the activities that the rover will conduct over the December holidays. We’re gearing up to send Curiosity our Christmas wish list later this week, and feeling grateful for the gifts she has already sent us!
Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
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Last Updated Dec 17, 2024 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 The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Sols 4393-4395: Weekend Work at the Base of Texoli Butte
Caption: NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on Dec. 12, 2024, at 23:15:47 UTC — sol 4391, or Martian day 4,391, of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Friday, Dec. 13, 2024
Curiosity continues to make great progress over the Mount Sharp bedrock and will spend the weekend investigating the northern base of the “Texoli” butte. The science team back on Earth enjoyed taking in the beautiful views of nearby “Wilkerson” butte and “Gould Mesa” while digging into the workspace in front of us to create a hefty to-do list for our roving geologist on Mars.
The rocks at the rover’s wheels today consisted of dusty, pale-colored bedrock that had a range of textures. We used the dust removal tool (DRT), MAHLI, and APXS instruments to characterize lighter, smooth bedrock at “Calabasas Peak,” and slightly darker, rougher bedrock at “Triunfo Canyon.” The ChemCam team used the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyze the composition of the rougher bedrock at “Chilao” and a vein that cuts through the bedrock at “Ojai,” and Mastcam provided the supporting documentation images of each target.
The Mastcam team assembled a variety of images and mosaics in the workspace and beyond. Two stereo mosaics documented the network of fractures in the bedrock at “Fern Dell” while a stereo mosaic of “Amir’s Garden” will be used to observe possible deformation in the rocks. A few single-frame images of troughs in the workspace will be used to investigate active surface processes. Further in the distance, Mastcam created a stereo mosaic of “Jawbone Canyon” to image potential aeolian ripples, and supported a ChemCam long-distance RMI image of a crater in the drive direction called “Grant Lake.” Lastly, ChemCam planned a long-distance RMI image to get a closer look at the structures within Gould Mesa.
Curiosity will drive 44 meters (about 144 feet) to the west over the weekend as we continue to close in on the intriguing boxwork structures. Lastly, the environmental group rounded out the plan with activities including cloud observations, dust-devil monitoring, and surveys of the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
Written by: Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
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Last Updated Dec 16, 2024 Related Terms
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Curiosity NavigationCuriosity HomeMission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates ScienceOverview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features MultimediaCuriosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars MissionsMars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar SystemThe Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Sols 4391-4392: Rounding the Bend
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on sol 4389 — Martian day 4,389 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Dec. 10, 2024, at 21:03:54 UTC.NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024
For planning today, we have a beautiful view of the northern tip of Texoli, as seen in the image foreground. Unfortunately, the rocks that make the view so pretty also made it unsafe to unstow the arm for contact science. Instead we are doing a lot of imaging and a drive. Our primary remote science target for ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam stereo is “Backbone Trail,” a block with multiple veins, to measure the composition and orientation of the layers. We also have ChemCam RMI targets of “Wilkerson” butte and “Grant Lake” crater to the north. Mastcam is also taking several other mosaics of “Gould Mesa,” a butte that is newly in view, and some sedimentary ripple features in the “Dry Lake,” and “Jawbone Canyon” bedrock targets. And, since we are as close to the northern point of Texoli as we will get, we of course also take a Mastcam mosaic of the spectacular layered blocks there.
After a nap, we’re ready to drive! I got to plan the drive today as Mobility Rover Planner, but the complex terrain really required all of the Rover Planners on shift today. While we want to head southwest, we had to divert a bit to the north (right of the image shown) to avoid some big blocks and high tilt. The path is very constrained in order to avoid driving over some smaller pointy rocks, scraping wheels along the sides of blocks, or steering into the side of blocks that might cause the steering to fail. And we also needed to worry about our end-of-drive heading to be sure the antenna will be clear to talk to Earth for the next plan. We ended up relying on the onboard behavior to help us optimize everything by implementing a really interesting and curvy 24-meter path (about 79 feet). Finally, after the drive we are taking a sun observation to help reduce error in the rover’s onboard attitude estimate. Hopefully this drive will get us past the occlusion created by Texoli and allow us to see a long way southwest for our next series of drives.
The second sol of the plan, the untargeted observations after the drive, focuses primarily on atmospheric observations, including Mastcam solar tau, and a long series of Navcam suprahorizon and dust-devil images and movies. We also let Curiosity choose her own target using AEGIS. Can’t wait to see what she picks!
Written by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Last Updated Dec 12, 2024 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 The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Sols 4389-4390: A Wealth of Ripples, Nodules and Veins
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captured this image showing the patches and aggregations of darker-toned material in its workspace on Dec. 8, 2024. Curiosity acquired this image using its Mast Camera (Mastcam) on sol 4387 — Martian day 4,387 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 17:44:17 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Monday, Dec. 9, 2024
We are continuing to edge our way around the large “Texoli” butte. Much of the bedrock we have been traversing recently looks pretty similar — paler-colored laminated bedrock — but today’s workspace had some interesting features, as did the “drive direction” image, which focuses on the future drive path.
Close to the rover, we had a wealth of fractures and darker-toned patches. The fractures or veins were too far from the rover for contact science, but ChemCam LIBS was able to target one of the more prominent ones at “Garlock Fault.” Luckily for the contact science instruments (APXS and MAHLI), the darker patches were within reach of the arm. Some of the darker patches were flatter and platy in appearance, whilst others had a more amorphous, blobby shape. Both types come with their own challenges. The flatter ones collect dust on their flat surfaces, so ideally they would be brushed with the DRT (Dust Removal Tool) before we analyze them, but they are often too fragile-looking, and we worry that some of the layers might break off or flake off. The amorphous ones have irregular surfaces, which can collect sand and dust and make getting a good placement tricky.
However, today we were able to get both APXS and MAHLI on the flattest, most dust-free looking patch at “Cerro Negro.” We will be able to compare the composition of the darker patches and the Garlock Fault vein, and hopefully tease out their relationship.
Mastcam will take a small mosaic of Garlock Fault and then a larger mosaic on crosscutting veins at “Wildwood Canyon.” This was previously imaged, but from a different angle, so getting a second image will allow us to calculate the orientations on the fractures. Further afield, the “Forest Falls” mosaic looks at an area of dark, raised vein material.
Looking at the drive direction image, the sedimentologists were very excited to see what appear to be ripple features in the rocks ahead of us, which can tell us a lot about the depositional environment. The Mastcam mosaic “Hahamongna” will image the outcrop we are driving towards (about 30 meters from today’s workspace, or 98 feet), to give context for what we see when we get there. Mastcam will take a second smaller mosaic at “Malibu Creek” midway between where we are today and where we hope to be on Wednesday.
Looking even further into our future driving path, we will obtain Mastcam and ChemCam RMI images of the top of Mount Sharp and the yardang unit. We have a bit to go before we get there of course, but we will use those images to examine structural relationships and consider the evolution of both — we can test all those theories when we get there!
We round out the plan with environmental monitoring, as always …and wait eagerly for the next workspace on Wednesday, when we will get up close to those ripples, with luck!
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick
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Last Updated Dec 11, 2024 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 The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Sols 4386-4388: Powers of Ten
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on sol 4384 — Martian day 4,384 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — Dec. 5, 2024, at 19:08:43 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Friday, Dec. 6, 2024
We successfully arrived in our new exploration quadrangle — the Altadena quad — which is named after a town on Earth very near our own Jet Propulsion Laboratory! The names from this quad will recognize the incredible interaction between Altadena and its surrounding environs with the San Andreas and other major faults, which led to the formation of several major mountain ranges, and with the rich human history of the area. The start of our activities in the Altadena quad was fairly typical, including observations both near to and far from the rover, depending on what catches our eye across the terrain. Today’s observations were no exception, but it strikes me that they fit into fairly neat order of magnitude bins that really crystallize how far-reaching (pun intended) Curiosity’s science is.
The nearest observation is of the rover itself, with MAHLI placed around 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) from its calibration target for a series of images tracking the amount of dust clinging to the target.
One meter (about 39 inches) from the front of the rover, MAHLI and APXS planned an analysis of a small float block, “Icehouse Canyon,” that resembled rocks we saw in Gediz Vallis. MAHLI, APXS, and ChemCam teamed up to analyze the DRT target located on typical bedrock in the workspace at “Sunland,” and ChemCam rastered across one the many veins in the workspace at target “Echo Mountain.” One meter (about one yard) in back of (and underneath) the rover, DAN scheduled multiple analyses that look to provide insight into water in the subsurface.
Tens of meters (tens of yards) from the rover, our interest in recording the many veins of this area continued. Mastcam planned three mosaics covering different collections of these long, linear features, some of which are visible in the lower left corner of the image above, to support study of their orientations.
Hundreds of meters from the rover, ChemCam looked back at Gediz Vallis, planning RMI mosaics of materials on both Gediz Vallis Ridge and within Gediz Vallis itself. The mosaics add more insight to that which we gained as we traversed through Gediz Vallis as the team tries to interpret the formation of the ridge and valley. Mastcam added coverage of this same area and extended their imaging a bit farther to include a small crater, “Grant Lake,” well south of the rover.
Thousands of meters from the rover (five-eighths of a mile, and beyond), ChemCam acquired a mosaic of the wind-sculpted structures that cap Mount Sharp, known as yardangs.
Finally, gazing up into the Martian atmosphere that extends tens of thousands of meters into space (6 miles, and multiples beyond that), Navcam planned early morning and midday imaging to assess the amount of dust in the atmosphere and search for clouds and dust devils. ChemCam planned a passive sky observation to measure certain chemical compounds in the atmosphere, and REMS and RAD included their regular schedule of weather and radiation monitoring, respectively.
The weekend plan is truly science across the scales!
Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
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Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 Related Terms
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