The mountains of Mars
Click for full resolution. For original images go here and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The panorama above, created from two left navigation camera photos taken by the Mars rover Curiosity on July 24, 2024 (here and here), looks south up the flanks of Mount Sharp as well as into the Gediz Vallis channel that the rover has been exploring for the past year or so.
The overview map to the right provides us a wide view of Gale Crater and the rover’s entire journey there since it landed on Mars in 2012. The blue dot marks its present position. The yellow lines indicate the approximate view in the panorama above. The red line indicates the planned route, leaving Gediz Vallis to take a parallel canyon uphill to the west.
Curiosity during its dozen years on Mars has traveled just under 20 miles and climbed about 2,500 feet. The peak of Mount Sharp however is still about 26 miles away and about 16,000 feet higher.
The rover is now at the very base of the sulfate-bearing unit, which is why last month it literally ran over some rocks that were its first detection of pure sulfur crystals on Mars. Once Curiosity reaches that sulfate-bearing unit it is likely going to be an extremely alien landscape, comprised of rock that is suffused everywhere with sulfur. Such landscapes are likely impossible on Earth due to its oxygen-rich atmosphere. The sulfur and oxygen would interact, forming different molecules.
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 resolution. For original images go here and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The panorama above, created from two left navigation camera photos taken by the Mars rover Curiosity on July 24, 2024 (here and here), looks south up the flanks of Mount Sharp as well as into the Gediz Vallis channel that the rover has been exploring for the past year or so.
The overview map to the right provides us a wide view of Gale Crater and the rover’s entire journey there since it landed on Mars in 2012. The blue dot marks its present position. The yellow lines indicate the approximate view in the panorama above. The red line indicates the planned route, leaving Gediz Vallis to take a parallel canyon uphill to the west.
Curiosity during its dozen years on Mars has traveled just under 20 miles and climbed about 2,500 feet. The peak of Mount Sharp however is still about 26 miles away and about 16,000 feet higher.
The rover is now at the very base of the sulfate-bearing unit, which is why last month it literally ran over some rocks that were its first detection of pure sulfur crystals on Mars. Once Curiosity reaches that sulfate-bearing unit it is likely going to be an extremely alien landscape, comprised of rock that is suffused everywhere with sulfur. Such landscapes are likely impossible on Earth due to its oxygen-rich atmosphere. The sulfur and oxygen would interact, forming different molecules.
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.
Bob, the label you added to the first photo says “sulate” bearing unit, not “sulfate”. : (
MDN: Oy. Now fixed. Thank you.