Curiosity looks backwards
Click for full resolution version. For original images go here and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The mosaic above was created from two photos taken on August 13, 2021 by Curiosity’s right navigation camera. It looks to the southeast, at the mountainous Martian terrain that the rover had been traveling just below for the past two months.
The overview map to the right shows with the yellow lines the approximate area covered by this mosaic. The white mountain at the top is the highest visible flank of Mount Sharp, and is beyond the right/bottom edge of the overview map. Mt. Sharp’s peak itself is not visible, as it is higher up and to the right. It is presently blocked by these mountainous foothills.
The science team probably took this image partly to provide another view of these mountains for comparison with earlier views. They can use this new data to look for changes as well as obtain better three-dimensional data.
They also took the image for the same reason I post it here. Having now climbed more than 1,500 feet from the floor of Gale Crater, Curiosity’s view is routinely spectactular. Why not enjoy it?
Mt. Sharp’s peak however is still about 13,000 feet above the rover. The climb up the mountain has just begun.
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
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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.
Click for full resolution version. For original images go here and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The mosaic above was created from two photos taken on August 13, 2021 by Curiosity’s right navigation camera. It looks to the southeast, at the mountainous Martian terrain that the rover had been traveling just below for the past two months.
The overview map to the right shows with the yellow lines the approximate area covered by this mosaic. The white mountain at the top is the highest visible flank of Mount Sharp, and is beyond the right/bottom edge of the overview map. Mt. Sharp’s peak itself is not visible, as it is higher up and to the right. It is presently blocked by these mountainous foothills.
The science team probably took this image partly to provide another view of these mountains for comparison with earlier views. They can use this new data to look for changes as well as obtain better three-dimensional data.
They also took the image for the same reason I post it here. Having now climbed more than 1,500 feet from the floor of Gale Crater, Curiosity’s view is routinely spectactular. Why not enjoy it?
Mt. Sharp’s peak however is still about 13,000 feet above the rover. The climb up the mountain has just begun.
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.
I have expect to see someone with a bad leg near the top…
Nothing to do with this post, it’s one of the good ones, but I would just like to announce, I’m bailing ship.
I’m sorry, I’ve had some good times, great conversations and I’ve learned a lot from this blog. But I’ve also encountered the most bigoted minds I’ve actually ever met on the internet. And to be honest… I’m too tired to be arguing with stone walls.
I hope that you, Bob, keep getting funded… The right wing needs a voice, and you make a decent case for much I fundamentaly disagree with. I still champion your right to say it. But in the short amount of time I generally have going about my day, doing my socialist stuff, I don’t have time to point out all the points you both miss, and are fundamentaly wrong upon.
Double so much for the (no doubt genuinely nice folks) that become more aggressive with their argument.
My last statement still stands… The world is not caving in thru left wing lunacy… It might be caving in thru climate change, but I’m sure Bob has a graph that proves although the world is on fire, everything is normal. Enjoy your echo chamber sheeple! Live and lit.
( forgot to say….. I came for “behind the black”, I’m leaving because it’s become much more “against anything not right wing”. )
Your politics over there might be falling to pieces…. Your faith in the democratic process might be shot to bits…. That’s a shame…. But your not the only country in the world with democracy… And as I’ve said so many times, I live in a socially responsible democracy. When your situation caves in, ( as so many of your right believe will happen),.feel free to look to the Nordic model to bail you out.
Lee Stevenson: Personally I am sad to see you go. I am also not surprised. You inability to admit to one simple fact, that socialism is fundamentally reliant on government coercion, illustrates your closed-mind and intellectual dishonest mindset. And when you are called on this, you name-call.
You could have simply said, yes, socialism requires government intervention and coercion, because you believe otherwise humans won’t do the right thing. That would have at least been intellectually honest. It would have sounded ugly, but it would have at least been on honest statement of your beliefs.
That you couldn’t say it means you aren’t honest, or you want to hide what you believe because you know how ugly it is. Such shallowness the world could do without.
Lee: I am for freedom, the kind of freedom that Kennedy and Roosevelt (Democrats I might mention) defended. You, like all leftists, are not, which is why you see the defense of liberty a partisan rightwing position.
Don’t go Lee! We all fight because we care! We keep each other honest. I think good times will return. I love you and Robert whatever your opinions are.
Just listened to a recording of a NASA / Boeing news conference on the latest Starliner delay. Bottom line, the oxidizer valve (to the thruster systems) seals leak enough to allow creation of Nitric acid if there is any moisture on the “dry” side of the valve, which in turn creates corrosion which can impede movement of the valve. Even though there was a rainstorm before the day of intended launch, and thruster covers leaked water, they don’t think this is where the moisture came from! So where? The atmosphere! Remind me how long spacecraft have been launching from Florida? And I believe it sometimes rains there, no?
And the Boeing chief engineer repeatedly said they would have to take the craft “back to the factory” to take it apart! Finally a correspondent rescued them by asking “Where is the factory?” Turns out he meant the old Shuttle processing facility at the cape! These people are so isolated from reality they can’t communicate with normal human beings.
Bottom line: this thing won’t fly this year. I wonder if the former CEO of Boeing is still taking bets that “The first humans on Mars will arrive on a Boeing rocket!”?
I’m with Jeff, don’t go Lee. Although I generally lean right other perspectives are important and I think you add value to the comments.
Just my two cents.
Sorry to see you go Lee. I nearly always agreed with your views, and was constantly impressed you put yourself in the “ball kicking machine” when you posted reasonable views/comments, contrary to 90% of the views here. I generally stay out of it due to the vitriol my comments generate. I’m here for the space stuff., but seek out your comments on political posts.
Have a great life mate.
@ Lee Stevenson:
You are respected on this forum. Much more than can be said of many traveling under your banner.
You are needed here. Not as a foil or punching bag, but as an honest voice. Gonna miss you.
Dave Smith / Michael Malice
The Red Pill
https://youtu.be/8TBM0-OMsJE
2:46
“…..To Red Pill someone is to demonstrate that what is presented as fact by the corporate press and entertainment industry is only a shadow of what is real. And that this supposed reality is in fact a carefully constructed narrative intentionally designed to keep some very unpleasant people in power and to keep everyone else tame and submissive…”
Lee wrote: “I’ve also encountered the most bigoted minds”
Getting called a bigot or a racist by a leftist means exactly nothing except they’ve lost the argument.
“Getting called a bigot or a racist by a leftist means exactly nothing except they’ve lost the argument.”
100% true.
@ Wayne:
Recall Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” dialogue in ‘The Republic’?