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Sols 4352-4354: Halloween Fright Night on Mars
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the target surface feature nicknamed “Reds Meadow,” using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. Curiosity captured the image Oct. 31, 2024, at 19:09:10 UTC, on sol 4350 — Martian day 4,350 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Friday, Nov. 1, 2024
Yesterday evening (Thursday) was Halloween for many of us here on Earth. My neighborhood in eastern Canada was full of small (and not so small!) children, running around in the dark collecting sweets and candy but also getting scared by the ghostly decorations hung at each house. Little did we suspect that our poor rover on Mars was also getting spooked. Curiosity completed about a meter (about 3 feet) of the planned drive before becoming unsettled … scared, if you will! … when its left front wheel got hung up on a rock and stopped moving.
Luckily, we understood this kind of frightened behavior and were able to resume planning today as per usual. That meter was enough to give us a whole new set of targets to choose from. As APXS Strategic Planner this week, I had chosen darker-looking targets in the workspace — “Ladder Lake” and “Reds Meadow” (shown in the accompanying MAHLI image) — earlier in the week. I was happy that bumping backwards by a meter allowed us to reach some of the more typical pale colored bedrock at “Eureka Valley” and a second APXS analysis on “Black Bear Lake,” which is a mixture of both pale bedrock and some darker layers. MAHLI added in a bonus set of images on “Stag Dome,” focusing on small, rougher patches on the pale bedrock.
ChemCam is taking advantage of the short bump, too, adding a passive observation on the brushed Reds Meadow target, analyzed by APXS and MAHLI in Monday’s plan. A ChemCam LIBS target “Hoist Ridge” focuses on a small vertical face of dark material. Two long distance images planned for ChemCam’s Remote Micro Imager (RMI) look at the distribution of rocks along the Gediz Vallis ridge in the distance.
Mastcam is taking several mosaics this weekend (must have gotten extra energy from the Halloween sugar!). Close to the rover, Mastcam will acquire single-frame images of the targets Hoist Ridge and Eureka Valley, and a small mosaic of some surficial troughs just a little further away. Moving further afield, a small 3×1 mosaic (three images in one row) will image the same area as the ChemCam RMI of the Gediz Vallis ridge, and a larger 9×2 mosaic will focus on the faraway yardang unit, where we hopefully will be in a few years.
Then for the really big images: Mastcam will image the whole landscape in a special 360-degree view, so big it needs to be broken into two parts. The first will have 43×4 frames, the second 34×5 frames. These mosaics are huge, so we save them for when we are at a really good vantage point to allow us to capture as much detail as possible for science and engineering planning.
As ever, we continue our environmental monitoring of conditions, with Mastcam and Navcam movies and images looking at dust in the atmosphere above and around us in Gale crater, and watching out for dust devils.
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick
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Last Updated Nov 04, 2024 Related Terms
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Although no ghouls or goblins or trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting facility still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they dress up in sometimes spooky, sometimes scary, but always creative costumes, often designed from materials available aboard the space station. Please enjoy the following scenes from Halloweens past even as we anticipate the costumes of the future.
Left: Wearing a black cape, Expedition 16 NASA astronaut Clayton C. Anderson channels his inner vampire for Halloween 2007. Image credit: courtesy Clayton C. Anderson. Middle: For Halloween 2009, the Expedition 21 crew shows off its costumes. Right: Expedition 21 NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott shows off her Halloween costume.
Left: An orange dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween, courtesy of Expedition 21 NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott. Middle: Italian Space Agency astronaut Luca S. Parmitano finally gets his wish to fly like Superman during Expedition 37. Right: Who’s that behind the scary mask? None other than NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly celebrating Halloween in 2015 during his one-year mission.
Left: Expedition 53 Commander NASA astronaut Randolph J. “Randy” Bresnik showing off his costume. Middle: Expedition 53 NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba wearing Halloween colors. Right: Expedition 53 European Space Agency astronaut Paolo A. Nespoli showing off his Spiderman skills.
Left: Expedition 57 crewmembers in their Halloween best – European Space Agency astronaut and Commander Alexander Gerst, left, and NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor. Right: Members of Expedition 61, NASA astronaut Christina H. Koch, top left, European Space Agency astronaut Luca S. Parmitano, NASA astronaut Andrew R. “Drew” Morgan, and NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir, show off their Halloween spirit in 2019.
Left: Expedition 66 crewmembers NASA astronaut R. Shane Kimbrough, left, Thomas G. Pesquet of the European Space Agency, Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei showing off their Halloween cards. Right: A hand rising from the grave?
In October 2021, Crew-3 NASA astronauts Raja J. Chari, Thomas H. Marshburn, Kayla S. Barron, and Matthias J. Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA), had some undisclosed plans for when they reached the space station just before Halloween. However, bad weather at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida thwarted those super-secret spooky Halloween plans, delaying their launch until Nov. 11. Undeterred, Expedition 66 crewmembers who awaited them aboard the station held their own Halloween shenanigans. ESA astronaut Thomas G. Pesquet posted on social media that “Strange things were happening on ISS for Halloween. Aki rising from the dead (or is it from our observation window?),” referring to fellow crew member Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Left: In 2022, Expedition 68 astronauts Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, left, and NASA astronauts Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio, Nicole A. Mann, and Josh A. Cassada dressed as popular video game and cartoon characters, using stowage containers in their Halloween costumes and holding improvised trick-or-treat bags. Middle: Expedition 70 astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, left, Satoshi Furakawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA astronaut Loral A. O’Hara, and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas E. Mogensen celebrate Halloween 2023. Right: The Expedition 72 crew has decorated the Node 1 galley with a pumpkin in preparation for Halloween 2024.
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JPL Engineers Put Their Skills to the Test With Halloween Pumpkins
A display at the annual pumpkin-carving contest at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory turns a white-painted squash into one of the large antennas of the agency’s Deep Space Network, which enables spacecraft at the Moon and beyond to communicate with Earth.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Using spray paint, power tools, and elaborate props, JPL engineers turn the pumpkins into elaborate displays that can pay tribute to – and poke fun at – popular culture and space exploration. Above, a pumpkin creation that spoofs the film “Oppenheimer.”Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Mechanical engineers at JPL compete in the annual pumpkin-carving contest on Oct. 31, which also marks JPL’s 87th birthday. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Pumpkin carving reaches new heights during the annual competition, where spacecraft-building engineers mix ingenuity and creativity for some spectacular results.
When mechanical engineers accustomed to building one-of-a-kind spacecraft turn that focus to pumpkins, the results can be hauntingly good. The annual Halloween pumpkin-carving contest at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California may be all in good fun, but to the 200 or so participants, it’s also serious business. Power tools are involved.
Pumpkins can even be turned into musical instruments during JPL’s annual pumpkin-carving contest.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dioramas can incorporate flying-saucer gourds, guitar-strumming pumpkins, and squashes that bear a striking resemblance to celebrities or famous deep space missions. Participants carve them on their breaks – 60 minutes of frantic sawing and drilling that sends vegetable detritus flying on a patio at JPL. (This year, one team had a minute-by-minute spreadsheet to make sure they stayed on schedule.)
Carving complete, engineers race into two conference rooms in a nearby building to install the pumpkins into displays of up to 4 feet by 4 feet square. Non-pumpkin materials – motorized parts, lights, often elaborate props, and painted backdrops – can be prepared beforehand.
“It’s not really a pumpkin-carving contest in the traditional sense. It’s a pumpkin art installation event with very few rules,” said Peter Waydo, who manages JPL’s spacecraft mechanical engineering section and emcees the carving. He’s been participating since the event began in 2011. “This is something everybody looks forward to every year – it just lets their creative juices flow completely unrestricted from the rules and processes we’re normally bound by.”
For the 2023 event, more than two dozen teams produced displays. They ranged from a Barbenheimer-themed “atomic makeover” featuring a mirrored disco-ball pumpkin to a space octopus emerging from a Jupiter-colored pumpkin to greet NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, and there were references to Taylor Swift, “Dune,” and the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. All of the creations were on display for fellow engineers, scientists, technicians, and other JPL employees to admire.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a competition without winners. A panel of judges named the year’s top six, with three from each of the two sections of engineers that participate. A display re-creating favorite items from JPL’s museum and an interactive Indiana Jones-themed display both won first. Second went to the Deep Squash Network – a spoof on NASA’s Deep Space Network, which enables spacecraft to communicate with Earth – and to a creation involving a descendent of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on the fictional planet Arrakis. The two third-place winners were an eyeball-pumpkin that resembled Las Vegas’ Sphere and the Barbenheimer display.
The event comes on a special day for the lab, which, founded Oct. 31, 1936, was celebrating its 87th birthday.
Additional photos from the pumpkin competition are available on JPL’s website.
Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.
News Media Contact
Melissa Pamer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 31, 2023 Related Terms
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Although no ghouls or goblins or trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting facility still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they dress up in sometimes spooky, sometimes scary, but always creative costumes, often designed from materials available aboard the space station. Please enjoy the following scenes from Halloweens past even as we anticipate the costumes of the future.
Left: Wearing a black cape, Expedition 16 NASA astronaut Clayton C. Anderson channels his inner vampire for Halloween 2007. Image credit: courtesy Clayton C. Anderson. Middle: For Halloween 2009, the Expedition 21 crew shows off its costumes. Right: Expedition 21 Flight Engineer NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott shows off her Halloween costume.
Left: Italian Space Agency astronaut Luca S. Parmitano finally gets his wish to fly like Superman during Expedition 37. Right: Who’s that behind the scary mask? None other than NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly celebrating Halloween in 2015 during his one-year mission.
Left: Expedition 53 Commander NASA astronaut Randolph J. “Randy” Bresnik showing off his costume. Middle: Expedition 53 Flight Engineer NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba wearing Halloween colors. Right: Expedition 53 European Space Agency astronaut Paolo A. Nespoli showing off his Spiderman skills.
Left: Expedition 57 crewmembers in their Halloween best – European Space Agency astronaut and Commander Alexander Gerst, left, and NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor. Right: Members of Expedition 61, NASA astronaut Christina H. Koch, top left, European Space Agency astronaut Luca S. Parmitano, NASA astronaut Andrew R. “Drew” Morgan, and NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir, show off their Halloween spirit in 2019.
Left: Expedition 66 crewmembers NASA astronaut R. Shane Kimbrough, left, Thomas G. Pesquet of the European Space Agency, Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei showing off their Halloween cards. Right: A hand rising from the grave?
In October 2021, Crew-3 NASA astronauts Raja J. Chari, Thomas H. Marshburn, Kayla S. Barron, and Matthias J. Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA), had some undisclosed plans for when they reached the space station just before Halloween. However, bad weather at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida thwarted those super-secret spooky Halloween plans, delaying their launch until Nov. 11. Undeterred, Expedition 66 crewmembers who awaited them aboard the station held their own Halloween shenanigans. ESA astronaut Thomas G. Pesquet posted on social media that “Strange things were happening on ISS for Halloween. Aki rising from the dead (or is it from our observation window?),” referring to fellow crew member Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Left: In 2022, Expedition 68 astronauts Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, left, and NASA astronauts Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio, Nicole A. Mann, and Josh A. Cassada dressed as popular video game and cartoon characters, using stowage containers in their Halloween costumes and holding improvised trick-or-treat bags. Right: Expedition 70 astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, left, Satoshi Furakawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen celebrate Halloween 2023.
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On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions called Jet N7. The image shows turbulent clouds and storms along Jupiter’s terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. The low angle of sunlight highlights the complex topography of features in this region, which scientists have studied to better understand the processes playing out in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
As often occurs in views from Juno, Jupiter’s clouds in this picture lend themselves to pareidolia, the effect that causes observers to perceive faces or other patterns in largely random patterns.
Citizen scientist Vladimir Tarasov made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 4,800 miles (about 7,700 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 69 degrees north.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. For more about this finding and other science results, see https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.
Image credit:
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Image processing by Vladimir Tarasov © CC BY
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