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Curiosity looks back again as it climbs higher onto Mount Sharp

Panorama
Click for full panorama.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

After completing several weeks of drilling, Curiosity has once again started climbing the rocky rough slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, working its way up into the giant slot canyon dubbed Gediz Vallis.

The panorama above, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was created from 31 pictures taken on May 30, 2023 by the rover’s right navigation camera. It looks back both at Curiosity’s past travels climbing Mount Sharp as well as the now increasingly distant floor and rim of Gale Crater. The rim is about 20-30 miles away.

On the overview map to the right, the blue dot marks Curiosity’s position when this panorama was taken, with the yellow lines indicating the approximate area covered. The white dotted line on both the panorama and map indicates the rover’s actual route, with the red dotted line its planned route.

Because of the steep rough terrain, the science team has shifted the rover a bit to the west as it climbs. It is going to be fascinating to watch how it manages this climb into Gediz Vallis, as it appears the terrain is going to get no less steep or rough.

Genesis cover

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

3 comments

  • Robert Pratt

    I just love these photos. I wonder how many of the animists and enviro and fragility nitwits are horrified by the tracks of the rover “damaging” another “pristine” world!

  • Robert Pratt: Please feel free to devote some time on your podcasts touting these pictures to your audience. And you don’t need me to do it! :)

  • Star Bird

    Ahead is Marvin and K-9 vacation spot and the place where the Instant Martians relax

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