Curiosity looks ahead: Which way to go?
Click for high resolution version. For original images, go here and here.
How about a bonus weekend cool image! The panorama above, created from two pictures taken on March 11, 2023 by the right navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity, gives us a wonderful view of the alien Martian terrain that the rover is presently within. It also shows us the dilemma mission planners have in planning the rover’s future travels.
The red dotted line on both the panorama and the overview map to the right indicates the planned route. The yellow lines on the map indicates the approximate area viewed by the panorama. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position, where it is presently in the middle of a drilling campaign in the marker layer where it sits.
The plan had been to travel to the east of what I like to call the the hill of pillows (in the middle of the panorama). Yet, it appears from this navigation image that the terrain might be less difficult to the west. Both routes will get the rover to its goal in Gediz Vallis.
I have no idea what the mission planners will decide to do. I am just a tourist going along for the ride, and sharing the journey with my readers. This is the first time any human spacecraft has ever traveled through such mountainous terrain on any planet.
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 high resolution version. For original images, go here and here.
How about a bonus weekend cool image! The panorama above, created from two pictures taken on March 11, 2023 by the right navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity, gives us a wonderful view of the alien Martian terrain that the rover is presently within. It also shows us the dilemma mission planners have in planning the rover’s future travels.
The red dotted line on both the panorama and the overview map to the right indicates the planned route. The yellow lines on the map indicates the approximate area viewed by the panorama. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position, where it is presently in the middle of a drilling campaign in the marker layer where it sits.
The plan had been to travel to the east of what I like to call the the hill of pillows (in the middle of the panorama). Yet, it appears from this navigation image that the terrain might be less difficult to the west. Both routes will get the rover to its goal in Gediz Vallis.
I have no idea what the mission planners will decide to do. I am just a tourist going along for the ride, and sharing the journey with my readers. This is the first time any human spacecraft has ever traveled through such mountainous terrain on any planet.
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
Mr. Z,
This offering is off-topic for this post, but is related.
I would be interested in your opinion in another post.
If privately funded individuals who voluntarily relocate from Earth to Mars decide amongst themselves to identify as Martians not subject to Earth-based governance (thus no longer able to receive logistical support), (those who privately purchased passage on mostly non-tax funded private enterprise (SpaceX) vessels), are the “neo-Martians” sovereign or are the Earthers?
Cue the gifted polio-infected blankets?
GaryMike: The human being, wherever that person is, is always sovereign. When (not if) the Earthers try to dictate to those living on Mars, the Moon, the asteroids, and elsewhere rules that those spacefarers decide for their own better-known local reasons are foolish and counter-productive, those spacecfarers are going to tell the Earthers good-bye.
Of course, such rebellion will not happen until the colonies in space are somewhat self-sufficient, but it will happen sooner than those on Earth realize.
Do not expect it to happen however with Musk’s first colonies, though I do expect there will be enough pushback to prevent too much regulatory abuse from Earth. Like the British North American colonies, it will likely take decades for the pot to reach a boiling point.
The Expanse – Se3 Ep03
“Planetary Railgun Strike on Martian Weapons Platforms”
https://youtu.be/sjFfw7dcYqY
6:38
Those wishing to control extra-terrestrial colonies would do well to remember they live at the bottom of a gravity well, and there are lots of rocks available.
Mr. Z,
“When (not if) the Earthers try to dictate…”
We share distrust of certain situational companions.
Just leave us (trying to control myself for the purposes of this community) alone.
I don’t think that those “companions” realize how much some of us are willing to suffer to just get away from them.