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31 March 2019
Sols 2363-2364: Drilling on the horizon?
Curiosity is getting close to the area in which we next want to drill. We are possibly as close as 2-3 drives (including today’s) away from our next drill target!
27 March 2019
Sol 2361 – 2362: Lots to explore in Glen Torridon
We are continuing to find interesting new things in Glen Torridon. One of my favorite new images was taken this weekend (Mars sol 2356) on target ‘Stonebriggs’ (pictured). We’ve seen round and smooth clasts before, but this area really stands out in how densely the clasts are packed together. Were these pebbles rounded by water during transport over a long distance? Or are they wind polished concretions similar to what …
25 March 2019
Sols 2359-2360: Hopping from outcrop to outcrop
At the start of Sol 2359, Curiosity found herself parked in front of some layered bedrock outcrops (see above image), a rarity in the rubbly landscapes that we’ve explored so far in the clay-bearing unit. We were constrained by power in today’s plan, but managed to make use of every available minute for science.
23 March 2019
Sol 2354-2358: Clay-bearing unit showing us its stripes?
…along the right side of the (Curiosity) rover and extending for meters ahead of the rover we observed small, parallel, narrow ridges of bedrock. Further from the rover, yet more bedrock was present, but which appeared in larger, flatter patches. These two contrasting bedrock manifestations drew the attention of the team…
18 March 2019
Sols 2352-2353: Why are we cracking up?
Today was a fun, busy day to plan. Curiosity finally made the drive to a rock called ‘Muir of Ord,’ which has a cracked surface. The science team is particularly interested in imaging this rock up close because of the fracture patterns
17 March 2019
Sols 2349-2351: Capturing Deimos!
Top priority for ENV and Mastcam is to record a rare solar transit by Deimos (the smaller of the two martian moons) on sol 2350. This is similar to a lunar eclipse here on Earth; however, as Deimos is very small (radius of 6 km), it will not block out the Sun but appear as a dark spot on the solar disk.
15 March 2019
Sol 2347-2348: Ctrl+Alt+Del
Curiosity is back to work after another hiatus due to a computer reset. These sorts of resets do happen from time to time for operating spacecraft and we’re able to enjoy the benefit of two computers to operate the rover by switching to the other one when needed.
7 March 2019
Sol 2340: And objects in the rear-view mirror may appear… interesting!
Finishing up at the ‘Midland Valley’ outcrop also included the inspection of a wide range of new images. In those images the Curiosity team discovered a block that allows a unique 3D view of the rocks in the area.
3 March 2019
Sol 2338: Finishing up at Midland Valley
We’ll kick off our block of science activities on Sol 2238 with a Mastcam mosaic looking ahead of the Curiosity rover, where the team identified an interesting area of fractured bedrock, pictured in the Navcam image above…
27 February 2019
Sol 2333: Back in action at Midland Valley
Curiosity returned to science planning today after a two week hiatus because of a technical issue. Our most recent science plan, described in the blog for Sols 2320-2323, included a drive towards a blocky outcrop called ‘Midland Valley.’ The drive was a success, bringing us right on top of the beautiful chunk of rock shown above – but before we could reach out and touch it, Curiosity went into safe mode.
