Curiosity looks ahead at very rough terrain higher on Mount Sharp
Click for full image.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and enhanced to post here, was taken on February 3, 2024 by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. The area it covers is indicated by the rectangle on the panorama above, which has been cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here. That panorama was created from 46 photos taken by the rover’s right navigation camera on that same day.
Those rough small peaks are higher on Mount Sharp, though far below its summit. The summit itself is not visible, and in fact has never been visible to Curiosity since it landed on Mars in August 2012. The peak is about 26 miles to the south and about 16,000 feet higher up, with much of the mountain in the way.
These small, rough peaks are in an area that the rover will likely never go, as shown in the overview map below.
Click for interactive map.
The blue dot to the right marks Curiosity’s position. The green dot marked its position two weeks ago, which also shows how slowly the rover is creeping up the mountain in the very rocky terrain of Gediz Vallis. Though Curiosity is making progress, it must pick its way carefully in order to reduce any further damage to its already damaged wheels. This means the science team can only do short traverses each time.
The yellow lines indicate the approximate area covered by the picture above, while the orange lines indicate the area covered by the panorama. The red dotted line indicats the rover’s planned future route.
The rough peaks in the picture above sit south and behind the 400-foot-high Kukenan peak that presently hovers to the rover’s east, and have only become visible recently as the rover has climbed higher and further south.
This terrain is also on the east side of Gediz Vallis. The science team instead plans to send the rover to the west, going up in a parallel slot canyon to Gediz that appears less rough.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Click for full image.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and enhanced to post here, was taken on February 3, 2024 by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. The area it covers is indicated by the rectangle on the panorama above, which has been cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here. That panorama was created from 46 photos taken by the rover’s right navigation camera on that same day.
Those rough small peaks are higher on Mount Sharp, though far below its summit. The summit itself is not visible, and in fact has never been visible to Curiosity since it landed on Mars in August 2012. The peak is about 26 miles to the south and about 16,000 feet higher up, with much of the mountain in the way.
These small, rough peaks are in an area that the rover will likely never go, as shown in the overview map below.
Click for interactive map.
The blue dot to the right marks Curiosity’s position. The green dot marked its position two weeks ago, which also shows how slowly the rover is creeping up the mountain in the very rocky terrain of Gediz Vallis. Though Curiosity is making progress, it must pick its way carefully in order to reduce any further damage to its already damaged wheels. This means the science team can only do short traverses each time.
The yellow lines indicate the approximate area covered by the picture above, while the orange lines indicate the area covered by the panorama. The red dotted line indicats the rover’s planned future route.
The rough peaks in the picture above sit south and behind the 400-foot-high Kukenan peak that presently hovers to the rover’s east, and have only become visible recently as the rover has climbed higher and further south.
This terrain is also on the east side of Gediz Vallis. The science team instead plans to send the rover to the west, going up in a parallel slot canyon to Gediz that appears less rough.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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