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By NASA
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 Mars Home 2 min read
Sols 4493-4494: Just Looking Around
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on March 25, 2025 — sol 4491, or Martian day 4,491 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 17:16:50 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Alex Innanen, atmospheric scientist at York University
Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
It’s my second shift of the week as the Environmental theme lead and keeper of the plan (a bit of a mouthful we shorten to ESTLK) and today started out feeling eerily similar to Monday. Once again, Curiosity is posing like a geologist, which means that once again we can’t unstow the arm and will be skipping contact science. The silver lining is that this means we have extra time to have a good look around.
The plan also looks similar to Monday’s — targeted remote sensing on the first sol before driving away, and then untargeted remote sensing on the next. On sol 4493 we start our remote sensing, almost as remote as we can get, with a suprahorizon movie looking for clouds in the south. A dust-devil survey rounds out the sol’s environmental observations, and then the geology theme group can get down to the serious business of looking at rocks. For Mastcam this means observing a group of bedrock targets all called “Observatory Trail” (one of which you can see in the middle of the image above), pointing out some interesting veins in “Point Loma,” and casting their gaze out toward “Black Butte” (which I could not think of a fun pun for…). ChemCam has a LIBS observation of “Cholla,” as well as two long-distance observations of the Texoli Butte and the boxwork structures. Our second sol is a little more restrained, as untargeted sols tend to be. But Curiosity will still have plenty of energy after a good rest. We’re taking advantage of that with an extra-long dust-devil movie. Even though we’re in our cloudy season, we still sometimes see dust lifting, and having that extra time to look out for it increases our chances of catching a wind gust or a dust devil in action. Alongside that we also have a Mastcam tau observation to keep an eye on the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and wrap up with a ChemCam AEGIS activity to autonomously choose a LIBS target.
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Last Updated Mar 28, 2025 Related Terms
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The TRICARE Online Patient Portal will no longer be available April 1.To retain health records, download them from the TOL Patient Portal before April 1.
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By NASA
NASA’s Space X Crew-9 members pose together for a portrait.Credit: NASA Students from Ohio and Texas will have the chance to hear NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station answer their prerecorded questions this week.
At 12:55 p.m. EST, Wednesday, March 5, NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit will respond to questions submitted by students from Puede Network, in partnership with The Achievery in Dallas.
At 10:30 a.m., Thursday, March 6, a separate call with NASA astronauts Williams, Hague, and Wilmore, will answer questions posed by students at Saint Ambrose Catholic School in Brunswick, Ohio.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth calls on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
The Puede Network, a Dallas-based youth organization, is collaborating with the Achievery, an online platform for connecting students with digital learning opportunities. Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 4 to Rodrigo Oshiro at: rodrigo@happytogether.studio or +54 9 113068 7121.
Saint Ambrose Catholic School, part of Saint Ambrose Catholic Church, is a preschool through 8th grade school focused on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Media interested in covering the event must RVSP by 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 5 to Breanne Logue at: BLogue@StASchool.us or 330-460-7318.
For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars, inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
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Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 03, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
Explore This Section Mars Home Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates 2 min read
Gardens on Mars? No, Just Rocks!
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in front of it, showing the Serpentine Lake abrasion patch on the right-hand-side of the rock, with the Green Gardens sampling location on the left. The rover used its onboard Front Right Hazard Avoidance Camera A, and captured the image on Feb. 16, 2025 (sol 1420, or Martian day 1,420 of the Mars 2020 mission) at the local mean solar time of 16:45:19. NASA/JPL-Caltech Over the past week, Perseverance has been parked at a location called “Tablelands,” an area containing the “Serpentine Lake” abrasion patch acquired a few weeks ago. The Mars 2020 team has been diligently analyzing the data from the abrasion patch, and these findings led to the decision to return to Tablelands and attempt a sample at this location. Due to the disaggregated material thwarting our last sample attempt at “Cat Arm Reservoir,” the team was eagerly awaiting results from this sampling attempt at a target called “Green Gardens.”
Then, very early Monday morning, the CacheCam images came down confirming that Perseverance had collected another core on Mars! The team will be working next on sealing this sample tube.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Sample Caching System Camera (CacheCam), located inside the rover underbelly. It looks down into the top of a sample tube to take close-up pictures of the sampled material and the tube as it’s prepared for sealing and storage. The material seen inside the coring bit is the Green Gardens sample. This image was acquired on Feb. 17, 2025 (sol 1420, or Martian day 1,420 of the Mars 2020 mission) at the local mean solar time of 19:16:24. NASA/JPL-Caltech Tablelands, the rock from which the Green Gardens core comes, is exciting to the Science Team because it contains serpentine minerals. These serpentine minerals likely formed several billion years ago when water interacted with rocks before Jezero crater formed. Water altered the minerals originally present in the rock into serpentine, which is often green in color. This characteristic green color is why the team chose the name “Green Gardens” for this sample target. These minerals are especially exciting because their structure and composition can tell us about the history of water on Mars. The formation of serpentine on Earth can support microbial communities, and the same might have been true on Mars. A sample like this from the Jezero crater rim is an important piece of the puzzle to Jezero’s watery past!
Perseverance is planning to conclude its time at Serpentine Lake with more science observations of the Tablelands outcrop. These measurements could include a reexamination of the Serpentine Lake abrasion patch and analysis of the tailings pile produced by the Green Gardens drill. After snaking around this area for a couple weeks, our next drives will take us further down the slope of the crater rim. We’ll head toward our next stop at a site called “Broom Point,” where more exciting discoveries await!
Written by Eleanor Moreland, Ph.D. Student Collaborator at Rice University
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Last Updated Feb 24, 2025 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Space is not the safest place to be. During spaceflight, both devices and humans risk exposure to high levels of radiation. Without sufficient protection, instruments would malfunction, and astronauts might face serious health risks. A team of researchers from Ghent University in Belgium are testing the potential of 3D-printed hydrogels – materials that can soak up large amounts of water – to serve as highly-effective radiation shields.
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