The Martian view from high on Mount Sharp
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was downloaded today from left navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity.
The image looks to the north from the lower foothills of Mount Sharp. The view is downhill across the floor of Gale Crater. The intermittent dotted red line that weaves between those foothills marks the approximate route that Curiosity took to climb through them to reach this point.
About 20 to 25 miles away the mountainous rim of the crater can be seen dimly. The air is filled with dust, because its is almost the peak of the dust season at Gale Crater, located just south of the Martian equator.
The overview map below provides some further context.
The blue dot on the map to the right marks Curiosity’s present position. The yellow lines indicate the area covered by the picture above. The red dotted line is the rover’s planned route, with the white dotted line its actual travel route.
The rover is making very steady and slow progress uphill inside Gediz Vallis. The rough and rocky ground, as shown by the picture, makes long daily traverses difficult if not impossible. Instead, each drive covers only a small distance so that the rover can pick its way among the rocks and minimize damage to its already damaged wheels.
Right now Curiosity is working its way along the side of a low cliff that is an extension of Gediz Vallis Ridge, which lower down the mountain was much higher and ended in a peak. As it has climbed into this slot canyon it has also worked its way to the top of that ridge, though it has done it the long way. Scientists are now using its cameras and robot arm to get a detailed look at the upper levels of that ridge’s geology, as it appears they consider it an important marker of past geological events.
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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P.O.Box 1262
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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 original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was downloaded today from left navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity.
The image looks to the north from the lower foothills of Mount Sharp. The view is downhill across the floor of Gale Crater. The intermittent dotted red line that weaves between those foothills marks the approximate route that Curiosity took to climb through them to reach this point.
About 20 to 25 miles away the mountainous rim of the crater can be seen dimly. The air is filled with dust, because its is almost the peak of the dust season at Gale Crater, located just south of the Martian equator.
The overview map below provides some further context.
The blue dot on the map to the right marks Curiosity’s present position. The yellow lines indicate the area covered by the picture above. The red dotted line is the rover’s planned route, with the white dotted line its actual travel route.
The rover is making very steady and slow progress uphill inside Gediz Vallis. The rough and rocky ground, as shown by the picture, makes long daily traverses difficult if not impossible. Instead, each drive covers only a small distance so that the rover can pick its way among the rocks and minimize damage to its already damaged wheels.
Right now Curiosity is working its way along the side of a low cliff that is an extension of Gediz Vallis Ridge, which lower down the mountain was much higher and ended in a peak. As it has climbed into this slot canyon it has also worked its way to the top of that ridge, though it has done it the long way. Scientists are now using its cameras and robot arm to get a detailed look at the upper levels of that ridge’s geology, as it appears they consider it an important marker of past geological events.
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.
If I didn’t know that this image is from Mars I’d swear it was a picture of the mud and rocks from a drained reservoir here out West. The multiple “benches” of erosion as the water level is dropped in stages looks almost identical.
Thank you once again for finding some very interesting pictures.
As Curiosity keeps crawling up Mount Sharp, it’s delivering some really amazing photos. You can see quite a distance from where it’s at, these days.