Curiosity climbing out of Gordon Notch hollow
Click for full image. For original images go here, here, here, here, and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The panorama above was created from five photos taken by Curiosity’s right navigation camera on May 4, 2022 as the rover worked its way upward out of Gordon Notch Hollow, the small valley it had left when it attempted to cross the Greenheugh Pediment to the west and was forced to retreat back into when engineers found the rough terrain on the pediment too much for the rover’s wheels.
The overview map to the right provides context. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position on Mars, on its 3,465 Sol since landing. The yellow lines mark the area viewed in the panorama, taken two Sols earlier. The red dotted line marks the original planned route, now abandoned. The white arrows indicate one of the more interesting upcoming geological features, dubbed by scientists the “marker horizon,” a distinct layer found in many places on the flanks of Mount Sharp.
On the panorama above the red dotted line is my guess as to the planned route out of Gordon Notch Hollow.
According to the science team’s most recent update on May 4th:
We have cleared the “Greenheugh pediment” and the mix of sandy, steep, and rough terrain that challenged our drives up and down it. However, we are finding that as we make our way up Mount Sharp along a new route, some of the same driving gremlins are with us.
Yesterday’s drive made it just about all the way to its endpoint, but Curiosity encountered higher than expected tilts as she attempted to turn toward our desired heading to enable clear communications with Earth via our high gain antenna. The turn did not complete, so direct communication with Curiosity via the high gain antenna was blocked. The current relative positions of Earth and Mars plus the pediment and scenic buttes around us give us fewer heading options for direct communication, so we are less robust to a missed turn here or a drive fault there. That meant that we had to wait until the morning of Sol 3465 to communicate with Curiosity another way – through one of the many orbiters circling Mars that we use to send our data to Earth. As such, Curiosity will chill on Sol 3464, but then spring into action on Sol 3465 with the plethora of activities the science team planned today.
Since then the rover has moved upward again, but the steepness of this hill is making the going slow, for the communications reasons explained above.
Where the science team will send Curiosity once it gets out of Gordon Notch Hollow remains unknown. They could send it to the west towards Gediz Vallis Ridge, to return to their original planned route, while avoiding the worst parts of the Greenheugh Pediment. Or they could decide to head directly south, climbing uphill so the rover ends up above the pediment to avoid it completely. This latter path would mean they would skip exploring Gediz Vallis Ridge, but get to the marker horizon sooner.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for full image. For original images go here, here, here, here, and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The panorama above was created from five photos taken by Curiosity’s right navigation camera on May 4, 2022 as the rover worked its way upward out of Gordon Notch Hollow, the small valley it had left when it attempted to cross the Greenheugh Pediment to the west and was forced to retreat back into when engineers found the rough terrain on the pediment too much for the rover’s wheels.
The overview map to the right provides context. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position on Mars, on its 3,465 Sol since landing. The yellow lines mark the area viewed in the panorama, taken two Sols earlier. The red dotted line marks the original planned route, now abandoned. The white arrows indicate one of the more interesting upcoming geological features, dubbed by scientists the “marker horizon,” a distinct layer found in many places on the flanks of Mount Sharp.
On the panorama above the red dotted line is my guess as to the planned route out of Gordon Notch Hollow.
According to the science team’s most recent update on May 4th:
We have cleared the “Greenheugh pediment” and the mix of sandy, steep, and rough terrain that challenged our drives up and down it. However, we are finding that as we make our way up Mount Sharp along a new route, some of the same driving gremlins are with us.
Yesterday’s drive made it just about all the way to its endpoint, but Curiosity encountered higher than expected tilts as she attempted to turn toward our desired heading to enable clear communications with Earth via our high gain antenna. The turn did not complete, so direct communication with Curiosity via the high gain antenna was blocked. The current relative positions of Earth and Mars plus the pediment and scenic buttes around us give us fewer heading options for direct communication, so we are less robust to a missed turn here or a drive fault there. That meant that we had to wait until the morning of Sol 3465 to communicate with Curiosity another way – through one of the many orbiters circling Mars that we use to send our data to Earth. As such, Curiosity will chill on Sol 3464, but then spring into action on Sol 3465 with the plethora of activities the science team planned today.
Since then the rover has moved upward again, but the steepness of this hill is making the going slow, for the communications reasons explained above.
Where the science team will send Curiosity once it gets out of Gordon Notch Hollow remains unknown. They could send it to the west towards Gediz Vallis Ridge, to return to their original planned route, while avoiding the worst parts of the Greenheugh Pediment. Or they could decide to head directly south, climbing uphill so the rover ends up above the pediment to avoid it completely. This latter path would mean they would skip exploring Gediz Vallis Ridge, but get to the marker horizon sooner.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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