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Sols 4471-4472: Marching Through the Canyon

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Sols 4471-4472: Marching Through the Canyon

A color close-up photo from the Martian surface shows a blurred-out background of rocky terrain colored pale orange-tan, while the top center and right corner of the image are filled with a view of a rover instrument in close focus. A metallic sage green cylinder extends from the upper right corner toward the center of the frame; its circular face has a line of nine holes in the metal around its outer edge, and inside that is a target formed by two concentric circles, each of them divided in quarters of alternating green and white. The cylinder is attached to the bulk of the instrument, which is sort of a rounded cube shape, creamy tan in color and dusted in some spots with brown-orange soil. This main part of the instrument dominates the upper middle half of the image, with one edge facing the viewer. The right-side face of the cube shows four small hex screws staggered up one side, and a pair of delicate wires, braided and leading to the green cylinder. The left face of the cube shows several lines of handwritten numbers and capital letters in dark gray ink or paint, rotated 90 degrees to the right from the viewer’s perspective. Part of the inscription reads “APXS SENSOR HEAD ASSEMBLY.”
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mast Camera (Mastcam), a close-up of the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), an instrument that measures the abundance of chemical elements in rocks and soils on the Martian surface. Located on the turret at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm, APXS is about the size of a cupcake, and this image shows the handwritten markings on the instrument’s sensor head. Curiosity captured this image on March 23, 2024 — sol 4134, or Martian day 4,134 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 21:59:21 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University

Earth planning date: Monday, March 3, 2025

Curiosity continued steady progress through the upper sulfate unit and toward its next major science waypoint: the boxwork structures. Our rover is currently driving south through a local canyon between “Texoli” and “Gould Mesa.” This route may expose the same rock layers observed while climbing along the eastern margin of the Gediz Vallis channel, prompting several science activities in today’s plan. With winter still gripping Gale crater and limiting the power available for science, the team carefully balanced a number of priorities.

The weekend’s drive positioned the rover within reach of light-toned laminated bedrock and gray float rock. We kicked off our two-sol plan by removing dust on a representative bedrock target, “Ramona Trail,” before analyzing with APXS and imaging with MAHLI. ChemCam acquired compositional analyses on a laminated gray float rock, “Josephine Peak,” in addition to long-distance images of Texoli. Mastcam documented key features, capturing images of Josephine Peak, Texoli, “Gobblers Knob,” and “Fort Tejon.” In addition to these science-driven images, Mastcam also acquired two images of APXS before a planned drive of about 21 meters (about 69 feet).

As Curiosity continues toward the boxwork structures, the intricate patterns we observe will provide valuable clues about the history of Mars. While the Mastcam images acquired today of the APXS sensor head won’t directly contribute to the boxwork study, they capture a more human aspect of the mission. With each “APXS horseshoe” image, such as the one featured in this blog from sol 4134, hand-written markings on the APXS sensor head appear alongside Martian terrain, a reminder that this incredible journey is driven by the human touch of a dedicated team on Earth who designed, built, and continue to operate this remarkable spacecraft.

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Mar 05, 2025

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