Mars’ flaky rocks

Mars' flaky rocks
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on February 21, 2024 by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. It once again shows us a very typical many layered rock that the rover has seen routinely in Gale Crater and in the foothills of Mount Sharp.

The long flake tells us many things. First, Mars’ one-third Earth gravity, thin atmosphere, and lack of life allows such flakes to survive. On Earth not only would wind and rain break such delicate forms, plant life would eat away at it as well.

Second, the many thin layers tell us again that Mars’ geological history comprises many cycles and geological events, each of which placed another layer down. The many layers here could actually be evidence of year-by-year events, much like tree-rings detail the drought conditions yearly on Earth.

It will take study on Mars however to find out. These image only tantalize. They cannot give answers.

Curiosity’s view of Gale Crater from its new heights on Mount Sharp

Low resolution version of panorama
Click for full resolution version of panorama. For the original images, go here, here, and here.

Overview map

Cool image time! The panorama above was created from three pictures taken on Februay 13, 2024 by the left navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity (available here, here, and here). It looks to the north, across Gale Crater and its nearest rim, about twenty miles away. The red dotted line indicates the approximate route Curiosity took to get to this point. The yellow lines on the overview map to the right show the approximate area covered by the panorama.

The images were part of the routine mosaics created by both the left and right navigation cameras for helping engineers plot the rover’s future travels. The pictures that look back at the far rim however also provide important atmospheric data. In this case, the haze tells the scientists how much dust is in the atmosphere. It is presently winter in Gale Crater, which also corresponds to the dust storm season. Thus, the view is very hazy.

Curiosity will likely remain at this location for several more weeks, as the science team is about to begin another drilling campaign. Note the large dark area on the cliff face on the right that is also level with the terrace where Curiosity presently sits. The scientists want to get core data of this layer, and they think they are at a good spot to do so.

The alien surface of Mars

The alien surface of Gediz Vallis
Click for original image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The picture above, brightened slightly to post here, was taken on February 15, 2024 by the right navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. It looks east at the looming cliff face of the mountain Kukenan that the rover has been traveling beside for the last six months. On the overview map to the right the yellow lines indicate roughly the area covered by this picture. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position, while the green dot marks its position on February 5, 2024. As you can see, the rover is making slow but steady progress uphill into Gediz Vallis.

This image illustrates the alien landscape of Mars quite beautifully. First, there is absolutely no life in this picture. On Earth you would be hard pressed to find any spot on the surface that doesn’t have at least some plant life.

Second, there is the rocky layered nature of this mountain. When the Curiosity science team first announced its future route plans (the red dotted line) to drive into this canyon back in 2019, the orbital images of these layers from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) had suggested the terrain here would be reminiscent of The Wave in northern Arizona, a smooth series of curved layers smoothed nicely over time by the wind.

As you can see, there is no smoothness here. Instead, every single layer here is infused with broken rock, suggesting that each layer is structurally weak. As erosion exposes each, the layer breaks up, crumbling into the chaos in this picture. The curved nature of the terrain at the bottom of the picture however does suggest that some sort of flow once percolated down this canyon, either liquid water or glacial ice, carving the layers into this curved floor.

Curiosity’s damaged wheels continue to appear stable despite the rough Martian terrain

A new look at Curiosity's worst wheel
To see the original images, go here and here.

The rover Curiosity on Mars has for more than two years been traveling across a very rocky and rough terrain as it climbs higher and higher on Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Since the rover’s wheels experienced far more damage than expected early in its mission, when it was on the floor of the crater where the terrain was not as severe, engineers have adopted a whole range of techniques to try to reduce any further damage.

First, they increased the safety margins on the software that guides Curiosity. It picks its way very carefully through the rocks, and stops immediately if it finds itself crossing terrain that is too rough.

Second, the science team does a photo survey of the wheels after every kilometer of travel. The two pictures to the right compare the damage on the rover’s most damaged wheel, with an image from the previous survey on top and the most recent image, taken yesterday, on the bottom. I have numbered the same treads, called grousers, in the two images to make it easier to compare them.

As you can see, it does not appear as if the damage has increased in the 210 sols or seven months of travel since the last survey. This wheel looks bad, but it is the worst wheel on the rover, and the strategies that the engineering team adopted years ago to reduce further damage continue to work, even as Curiosity traverses some very rough ground.

The software requires the rover to travel shorter distances in each drive when the ground is this rough, but the consequence is that it will last much longer, and thus have a better chance of reaching higher elevations on Mount Sharp.

Curiosity looks ahead at very rough terrain higher on Mount Sharp

Panorama on Sol 4086, February 3, 2024
Click for full image.

The rough terrain higher on Mount Sharp
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and enhanced to post here, was taken on February 3, 2024 by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. The area it covers is indicated by the rectangle on the panorama above, which has been cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here. That panorama was created from 46 photos taken by the rover’s right navigation camera on that same day.

Those rough small peaks are higher on Mount Sharp, though far below its summit. The summit itself is not visible, and in fact has never been visible to Curiosity since it landed on Mars in August 2012. The peak is about 26 miles to the south and about 16,000 feet higher up, with much of the mountain in the way.

These small, rough peaks are in an area that the rover will likely never go, as shown in the overview map below.
» Read more

Saw-toothed razor rocks on Mars

Saw-toothed razor rock on Mars
Click for original image.

Looking at the base of Kukenan
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture above, cropped and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 22, 2024 by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity.

The photo gives us a fine example of the many very strange and delicate formations seen on Martian rocks and boulders as it slowly weaves its way up Mount Sharp, inside the slot canyon Gediz Vallis. On Earth such thin flakes like these are generally only seen inside caves, where there is almost no life to disturb their development and the natural conditions are as benign as well. On Mars, the only thing that can disturb this rock is the wind, and though over time it can erode things the thin atmosphere allows such flakes to form, aided by the gravity about 39% that of Earth’s.

The photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken the same day by the rover’s left navigation camera, and illustrates the overall rocky nature of all of the terrain surrounding Curiosity. It looks to the southeast, at the base of nearby 400-foot-high Kukenan.

For a map showing Curiosity’s location (as well as another weird Martian rock, see my prevous post on January 17, 2024, A rock tadpole on Mars.

A rock tadpole on Mars

A rock tadpole on Mars

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 11, 2024 by the left navigation camera of the Mars rover Curiosity.

The picture was highlighted in yesterday’s update from the rover’s science team, describing the team’s upcoming geological goals for the next few days.

We have observed resistant, polygonal fractures/ridges in many recent bedrock blocks. There is much speculation among the team as to the origin of these features. Hypotheses have different implications for past environments, and the polygonal fractures are therefore of high interest. As well as the polygonal fractures, there are more continuous linear veins. The relationship between the polygonal and linear fractures can also help to inform our interpretations

You can see the polygonal fractures in the full image. The thin line of rock sticking up from the tadpole illustrates one of these continuous linear veins. The material that fills the vein is obviously more resistent to erosion, so as the wind (and maybe ancient ice or water activity) scoured the rock into its tadpole shape, the vein material remained.
» Read more

The ancientness of rocks on Mars

Ancient rocks on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on December 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. It shows what is a somewhat typical rock found on the ground as Curiosity climbs Mount Sharp in Gale Crater.

Two features stand out. First, the many layers illustrate again the cyclical nature of Martian geology. Many sedimentary events occurred over a long time to create this rock, each cycle putting down a new layer, with some intervening time periods possibly removing layers as well. Such layering has now become evident in both ground photos taken by rovers as well as orbital images.

Second, the delicate nature of some layers indicates the incredibly slow erosion process on Mars, enhanced by the red planet’s one-third gravity. The atmosphere is incredibly thin, less than 0.1% of Earth’s. Yet given time the wind had been able to wear away the edges of this rock. The thin atmosphere and light gravity has also allowed some material to remain in a delicate manner that would be impossible on Earth.

Thus, for these thin flakes to have formed has required a great deal of time. The very nature of this rock speaks of an ancient terrain, shaped slowly by inanimate processes with no active life around to disturb things.

Curiosity science team releases movies of Mars from dawn to dusk

Using its front and rear hazard avoidence cameras, the Curiosity science team had the rover take two full sets of images looking in one direction for twelve hours straight in order to create two movies of Mars that show an entire day, from dawn to dusk.

I have embedded both movies below. From the press release:

When NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover isn’t on the move, it works pretty well as a sundial, as seen in two black-and-white videos recorded on Nov. 8, the 4,002nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rover captured its own shadow shifting across the surface of Mars using its black-and-white Hazard-Avoidance Cameras, or Hazcams.

Instructions to record the videos were part of the last set of commands beamed up to Curiosity just before the start of Mars solar conjunction, a period when the Sun is between Earth and Mars. Because plasma from the Sun can interfere with radio communications, missions hold off on sending commands to Mars spacecraft for several weeks during this time.

The first looks forward, into Gediz Vallis, where Curiosity will eventually travel. The second looks back down Mt Sharp and out across the rim of Gale Crater.
» Read more

Curiosity takes a close-up of distant cliffs

Panorama on December 20, 2023
Panorama on December 20, 2023. Click for full image.

Close-up of a distant cliff
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken on December 21, 2023 by the chemistry camera (ChemCam) on the rover Curiosity. Originally designed to take close-ups of rocks very nearby the rover, the science team over time discovered that they could also use this camera to get close-ups of very distant objects, providing them another way to study the geology in Gale Crater and on Mount Sharp.

The picture to the right I think shows the horizon area indicated by the arrow on the panorama above, taken the day before. Note the many many layers, a geological feature that Curiosity has discovered is ubiquitous on Mars. Over eons the entire surface of the red planet has been layered repeatedly by cyclical geological events, producing layers within layers within layers. I guarantee that when Curiosity gets closer to this cliff it will see layers inside the smallest layers ChemCam can see now.

The red dotted line on the panorama above indicates the approximate planned route that Curiosity will eventually take, cutting across in front of that mountain and turning south somewhere near but to the west of where the cliff in this picture is located.
» Read more

Communications resume with Mars orbiters and rovers

It now appears that communications have resumed between Mars and the Earth, the planets having moved do that the Sun is no longer in between. From an update by the Curiosity science team today:

Mars has just emerged from its solar conjunction period, when sending commands to all Mars spacecraft was not safe for three weeks since the Red Planet was behind the Sun as seen from Earth. During that time, Curiosity followed a long plan of instructions covering Sols 4004-4022 which were uploaded to the rover during the week of October 30. The early word on is that the rover weathered the long blackout period just fine.

During the black-out the rovers had continued to upload data to the orbiters above, and some of that data was relayed back to Earth this past weekend, though the relay was “spotty” with some data packages lost.

Communications have now cleared up, and so we should expect both Curiosity and Perseverance to resume full operations again.

Curiosity looks back at Gale Crater one last time before month-long communications break

Looking back at Gale Crater
Click for image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map

Though the view has not changed much since early October, when I last posted a Curiosity navigation image looking out across Gale Crater from the present heights of Mount Sharp, today’s image above, taken on November 8, 2023, sol 4001 since the rover landed on Mars, signals the beginning of the monthlong solar conjunction, when all communications with Mars is blocked because the Sun has moved between the Earth and the Red Planet.

Solar conjunction occurs every two years, with this being the sixth conjunction experienced by Curiosity. It officially began on November 6th and is expected to end around November 29th. The picture above however was obtained two days into that conjuction, and is unusual in that it does not have the large drop-outs now seen in many other images taken then, both from Curiosity and Perseverance. We should expect there to be very few additional images before the end of November.

The blue dot in the overview map to the right shows Curiosity’s present position, with the yellow lines indicating roughly the area covered by the picture above. The crater rim is about 20 to 25 miles away, with the peak of Mount Sharp about the same distance away in the opposite direction. The rover has climbed about 2,500 feet, but it still sits about 13,000 feet below the mountain’s peak. Though the photo encompasses Curiosity’s entire route since landing, most of it is out of sight, the lower flanks of Mount Sharp blocking our view.

Gale Crater as seen by Curiosity from the heights of Mount Sharp

Gale Crater as seen by Curiosity from the heights of Mount Sharp
Click for original image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Though Curiosity still lies more than 13,000 feet below the peak of Mount Sharp, in its ten years on Mars it has climbed a considerable distance uphill since leaving the floor of 97-mile-wide Gale Crater, about 2,400 feet. The panorama above, taken today by one of Curiosity’s navigation cameras and rotated and cropped to post here, gives us a good sense of the elevation the rover has gained in that time.

The overview map to the right provides some perspective. Curiosity’s present location is indicated by the blue dot, with the yellow lines indicating the direction of this panorama. Though Curiosity climbed up from that valley on the lower left, none of its route is visible in this picture, as the weaved up from the left and the steepness of the ground hides the lower sections.

The mountain chain in the distance, about 20 to 25 miles away, is the north rim of Gale Crater. Beyond it can faintly be seen other mountains, which form the rim of another smaller crater to the north. The peak of Mount Sharp, about 23 miles to the south and in the opposite direction, forms the wide central peak of Gale Crater, unusual in that it fills much of the crater and rises higher than the crater’s rim, factors which were part of the reason this location was chosen as Curiosity’s landing site.

This picture also allows scientists to get a sense of the dust levels in the Martian atmosphere, which change seasonally depending on dust storm activity. Since it is now summer on Mars, when dust activity is low, the air is relatively clear.

Update on Curiosity’s journey in Mount Sharp, including its future route

Curiosity's future planned route
Click for original image.

The Curiosity science team yesterday released a new 360 panorama taken on August 19, 2023 by the rover’s high resolution camera, as part of an effort to document an important geological location finally reached after two previous attempts failed.

Three billion years ago, amid one of the last wet periods on Mars, powerful debris flows carried mud and boulders down the side of a hulking mountain. The debris spread into a fan that was later eroded by wind into a towering ridge [dubbed Gediz Vallis Ridge], preserving an intriguing record of the Red Planet’s watery past.

Now, after three attempts, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached the ridge, capturing the formation in a 360-degree panoramic mosaic. Previous forays were stymied by knife-edged “gator-back” rocks and too-steep slopes. Following one of the most difficult climbs the mission has ever faced, Curiosity arrived Aug. 14 at an area where it could study the long-sought ridge with its 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm.

That panorama can be viewed here. The rover spent eleven days at this geological location, and has since moved on.

Because that panorama covers some of the same ground I have previously posted from the rover’s navigation cameras, I have instead posted above the graphic from the press release, with additional annotations, because that graphic provides new information about Curiosity’s future travels.

The white line marks Curiosity’s past travels as well as the planned route as previously released by the science team. The red line marks the additional route that the rover will follow beyond, weaving its way up Mount Sharp.

Weird rocks on Mars

Weird rocks seen by Curiosity and Perseverance
For original images, go here and here.

Time for two cool images, this time from both of the American rovers on Mars.

The left picture above was taken on September 9, 2023 by the high resolution mast camera on Curiosity. It shows what appears to be a many-layered but rounded rock which appears typical of the many boulders that cover the terrain through which Curiosity is presently traveling. In the past the layered rocks that Curiosity has observed lower on the flanks of Mount Sharp have not been rounded. Instead, the delicate layers have often extended outward at the rock’s edges, almost like paper or threads. For some reason, the layers in the rocks here have been eroded smooth, suggesting they were once covered by flowing water or ice, able to round the rough edges in a way that Mars’ thin atmosphere can’t.

What is puzzling is the location, higher on Mount Sharp. One would expect the reverse, with such erosion more typical lower on the mountain and uneroded delicate layers more common higher on the mountain.

The right picture above was taken on September 8, 2023 by one of the high resolution mast cameras on the rover Perseverance in Jezero Crater, about 5,000 miles to west of Curiosity. It shows a rock whose shape is so strange it is hard to fathom a geological process that would result in this form. Possibly the rock was a surface layer on a larger round boulder, and the normal freeze-thaw cycle of Mars caused it crack off as one piece. The lump in the middle however makes this explanation questionable.

Also puzzling is the curved shape. On Mars almost no geological layers have been found that are curved. They are generally flat and horizontal, reflecting the lack of tectonic processes that on Earth often twist and squash layers.

Curiosity’s upcoming travels on Mount Sharp

Curiosity's view on September 6, 2023
Click for original image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

The panorama above, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was created on September 6, 2023 from eleven pictures taken by the right navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity.

This mosaic looks south, into the slot canyon dubbed Gediz Valles. The red dotted line on the panorama as well as the overview map to the right indicates the planned route the science team plans on traveling as it sends Curiosity higher and higher on Mount Sharp. On the overview map Curiosity’s present position is indicated by the blue dot. The yellow lines show the approximate area covered by the panorama above.

As noted in today’s update from the science team:

The rover is currently driving across bumpy terrain consisting of rounded bedrock sticking up between dark sand and drift as she drives south, and slightly uphill, along the Mt. Sharp Ascent Route. Due to the rugged ground, the rover sometimes ends her drive with a wheel or two perched on a rock.

When the rover’s placement prevents use of the arm, the scientists have it do other things, such as take more images of the many layers on Kukenan.

As rocky as this future route is, it appears it is less rocky than earlier terrain, which the science team found impossible to traverse requiring several route detours. Thus, the pace forward has been a bit faster lately.

Curiosity under the shadow of a Martian mountain

Panorama showing Kukenan on August 8, 2023
Click for full resolution. For original images, go here and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map

Another cool image to start the week! The panorama above was created using two navigation images taken by Curiosity on August 8, 2023. It looks almost due west at the dramatic western wall of 400-foot-high Kukenan butte.

The blue dot on the overview map to the right marks Curiosity’s present location. The yellow lines indicate approximately the area covered by the panorama above. The red dotted line indicates the rover’s planned route.

Recently JPL issued a press release touting the efforts of its engineers to overcome the very steep and rocky terrain that Curiosity is presently traversing, an effort that I have documented repeated in the past few months (see posts here and here). They had been trying to send Curiosity straight up the mountain, to no success, and finally decided to do what every hiker and trail-maker does routinely, do back and forth switchbacks to reduce the grade per step.

In June they headed slowly uphill going east. In July they turned back and worked their way uphill going west, heading back to the Jau crater complex to get a quick look at these craters, then turned again in August to head back east, slowly working uphill along the contour lines. As they do this the rover is moving closer and closer to Kukenan, the largest butte so far studied in the foothills of Mount Sharp.

This panorama is one of the best illustrations of the very complex geological history of Mars. Each layer signals a past cycle in Mars’ very cyclic history, created because of the red planet’s wide swings of rotational tilt over time. Once underground, these layers have become exposed because erosion over the eons has slowly removed the material that once buried it, leaving the butte behind.

Amidst the mountains on Mount Sharp on Mars

Panorama from Curiosity, July 12, 2023
Click for higher resolution. Original images can be found here, here, and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

The panorama above, created from three images, was taken by Curiosity on July 12, 2023 using its right navigation camera. It looks south in the direction that the science team eventually plans to send the rover, as indicated by the red dotted line on both the panorama and the overview map to the right. The yellow lines on the overview map indicate approximately the area covered by the panorama. Kukenan’s peak rises about 500 feet above the rover, and I guarantee there will be many planetary geologists that are going to study the pictures of its many layers for many years.

At present however Curiosity is heading west, away from that planned route, to visit the small craters about 500 feet away. For almost all of the rover’s decade-long journey in Gale Crater, it has seen relatively few craters, and since it left the floor of the crater and began its climb up the flanks of Mount Sharp three years ago, it has seen none.

Inspecting the floors and surrounding ejecta of these small craters will give the scientists a look at materials that are presently below the surface. While it is likely that material will be of geological layers Curiosity has already traveled over lower down the mountain, it is also possible there will be surprises. The scientists decided they couldn’t pass up this opportunity to find out.

Why have there been so few craters in Gale Crater? Though Mars is hardly as active as Earth, its geological history is almost as dynamic. The surface of Gale has been reshaped by the processes that created Mount Sharp, processes that destroyed craters from early in Mars’ history. The craters the rover is about to see are almost certainly relatively young.

Curiosity’s most damaged wheel appears to be surviving the rough terrain on Mount Sharp

Curiosity's middle left wheel, from November 2022 to July 2023
For original images go here and here.

In today’s download of images from Curiosity was a set of pictures taken by its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) of the rover’s wheels, as part of the science team’s routine inspection procedures after every 500 meters of travel.

The picture to the right shows what I think is the rover’s left middle wheel, its most heavily damaged, comparing what that wheel looks like now versus what it looked like in November 2022. At that time five of the wheel’s zig-zag grouser treads were broken, three of which are visible in both pictures. The numbers indicate identical wheel treads.

As you can see, after more than seven months of travel across some of the roughest and rockiest ground so far seen on Mars, no more grousers have broken in the new picture. The plus (“+”) signs indicate places where I think some additional metal between the grousers appears to have broken away, but even here the additional damage appears minimal.

Based on past wheel inspections, I expect more images will be taken in the next day or so. We shall see if those pictures indicate any further damage elsewhere. Based on this new picture, however, it appears that the care the science team takes in picking Curiosity’s route, as well as its software (designed to avoid the worst terrain), is continuing to preserve the wheels from further significant damage.

Curiosity tops a ridge to see its rough path forward

Curiosity's view ahead on June 29, 2023
Click for original image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map

After more than a month of struggle to get Curiosity to maneuver uphill through a very rocky and steep terrain, the science team today finally announced that the rover had topped the ridge and could once again see its way forward into Gediz Vallis, the slot canyon it plans to use as its route up Mount Sharp.

The panorama above, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was taken on June 29, 2023 following Curiosity’s last move forward. The yellow lines on the overview map to the right indicate the approximate area covered by this panorama. The red dotted line on both images indicates Curiosity’s planned route, with the white dotted line its actual course.

The white ridge to either side of the central peak dubbed Kukenan is actually the higher flanks of Mount Sharp. The peak of Kukenan is about a half mile away and about 400 feet higher, with those white flanks about 2.5 miles beyond. The actual peak of Mount Sharp is about 25 miles farther south and about 17,000 feet higher.

The panorama makes clear that the path forward is not going to be any less rough for Curiosity and its damaged wheels. Expect progress to be slow for many months to come.

Looking down a canyon on Mars

Looking down a canyon on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right was taken on June 17, 2023 by Curiosity’s high resolution camera, looking back down Gediz Vallis and out across the distant floor of Gale Crater, far below. The white dotted line shows the route within this image where Curiosity had previously traveled inside this canyon, coming up around that shadowed mesa and then off to the west to try to get to terrain that it had earlier retreated because it was too rough on the rover’s wheels. Its subsequent path to the spot where this picture was taken was off to the left of the image, out of view.

This picture illustrates well the steepness and roughness of the mountainous canyon through which Curiosity presently travels. The small mountains visible on the floor of Gale Crater, about sixteen miles away, are no more than 450 feet high. The floor of the crater is 1,900 feet below where Curiosity present sits.
» Read more

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.

Paperwork on Mars

Paperwork on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 15, 2023 by the close-up camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. From the caption:

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took this close-up view of a rock nicknamed “Terra Firme” that looks like the open pages of a book, on April 15, 2023, the 3,800th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the end of its robotic arm. The rock is about an inch across (2.5 centimeters).

Strange looking rocks like this have not been rare during Curiosity’s travels in Gale Crater, though it seems to me that the variety and strangeness has increased as the rover has climbed higher on Mount Sharp. In this case, the tall flake in the center — as well as the shorter flakes to the left — were among the many thin layers seen in this area. These layers however were clearly made of much harder material than the layers above and below. Those weaker layers eroded away over the eons, leaving behind these thin sheets.

Also, if you own red-blue 3D glasses, take a look at the anaglyph here.

The climb into Gediz Vallis

Panorama on Sol 3808, April 24, 2023
Click for original image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

After three months traversing the geological layer that the scientists have dubbed the Marker Band, Curiosity has now climbed higher, passing what I dubbed the Hill of Pillows on the west so that it is now in a position to return to its planned route up Mount Sharp, as indicated by the red dotted line in the overview map to the right and the panorama above.

The panorama, cropped, reduced, and annotated to post here, was created on April 24, 2023 using 31 images from the rover’s right navigation camera. The yellow lines on the overview map indicate approximately the area covered, with the blue dot marking Curiosity’s present position.

For scale, the top of Kukenan is about 5,200 feet above Curiosity, while the top of Chenapua is only about 115 feet higher. The white flanks are about 3,200 feet above Kukenan, and are about 4 to 5 miles away.

Looking back, the rim of Gale Crater on the far left of the panorama is about 20 miles away.

Curiosity gets a software update that will speed its travels and better protect its wheels

Panorama on March 27, 2023 (Sol 3781)
Click for full resolution panorama. The original images can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Engineers this week completed a major software update on the Mars rover Curiosity that, among many other improvements, will allow it to travel more quickly across the rocky Martian surface but at the same time better protect its damaged wheels.

The team also wants to maintain the health of Curiosity’s aluminum wheels, which began showing signs of broken treads in 2013. When engineers realized that sharp rocks were chipping away at the treads, they came up with an algorithm to improve traction and reduce wheel wear by adjusting the rover’s speed depending on the rocks it’s rolling over.

The new software goes further by introducing two new mobility commands that reduce the amount of steering Curiosity needs to do while driving in an arc toward a specific waypoint. With less steering required, the team can reach the drive target quicker and decrease the wear that inherently comes with steering. “That ability was actually dreamed up during the Spirit and Opportunity days,” Denison said. “It was a ‘nice to have’ they decided not to implement.”

The software will also make it possible for Curiosity to travel more without the help of humans on Earth, which will also speed its travels up Mount Sharp, on ground that is getting increasingly rough, as shown in the mosaic above of navigation images from March 27th.

Looking back from the foothills of Mount Sharp

Panorama looking back across Gale Crater, March 29, 2023
Click for original image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

The panorama above, cropped to post here, was taken today by the left navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. It looks back at the rover’s previous travels, though only the terrain traveled in the past few months is visible, the rover having reached this point through the notch to the left of the distinctly dark mesa in the center of the picture. The lower flanks of Mount Sharp the rover traversed to get here are now blocked from view.

Instead, the image provides a spectacular example of the views north from Curiosity’s present position. The overview map to the right provides us the full context of the entire ten-plus year journey since Curiosity landed safely on Mars on August 5, 2012. The white squiggly line indicates the rover’s route. The yellow lines mark the approximate area covered by the panorama. The rim of Gale Crater is about 20-25 miles away.

As you can see, as spectacular as this view is, the journey up Mount Sharp has barely begun. Mount Sharp’s peak is about 18,000 feet high. The rover at this point has only climbed about 4,600 feet from the floor of Gale Crater.

Curiosity heads to the west of the Hill of Pillows

Panorama on March 27, 2023 (Sol 3781)
Click for full resolution panorama. The original images can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

In my previous post on March 11, 2023 showing Curiosity’s spectacular view at that time in the foothills of Mount Sharp, the main question was: Which route will the rover take in the next few weeks? Based on the panorama above, created from five pictures taken by Curiosity’s right navigation camera today, it now appears that the science team has made its decision and will have the rover traverse to the west of what I label the Hill of Pillows.

The overview map to the right gives the context. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s position three days ago, with the yellow lines indicating the approximate area covered by the panorama. The red dotted line shows the planned route going past the Hill of Pillows to the east.

The science team took a careful look at the terrain in both directions, and decided the route to the west was both more gradual and less rough. This set of images by the navigation camera was now taken to better plan the route up in this hollow among its rock-strewn ground.

Make sure you look at the full resolution version of the panorama. You can see on the horizon the high mesas in the south just beginning to appear.

Curiosity looks ahead: Which way to go?

Curiosity's view on March 11, 2023
Click for high resolution version. For original images, go here and here.

Overview map

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.

Curiosity’s most recent cloud campaign

A cloud on Mars
Click for original image.

On January 30, 2023 I posted the picture to the right, taken by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Curiosity. The picture was part of their ongoing cloud survey, running from January to March ’23 and using the rover’s hi-res camera to look for clouds during twilight. Today the rover science team issued a press release describing some of the results of that campaign. For example, on February 2nd the rover captured a sunset with sun rays, sunlight illuminating the bottom of clouds after the Sun has set. The release also provided this explanation for the cloud on the right.

In addition to the image of sun rays, Curiosity captured a set of colorful clouds shaped like a feather on Jan. 27. When illuminated by sunlight, certain types of clouds can create a rainbowlike display called iridescence. “Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud’s particle sizes are identical to their neighbors in each part of the cloud,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “By looking at color transitions, we’re seeing particle size changing across the cloud. That tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time.”

In the case of Mars, the clouds are not made of liquid water droplets like on Earth, but ice particles, sometimes water and sometimes dry ice.

Drilling success for Curiosity in the marker layer?

Curiosity's view ahead, February 25, 2023
Click for full panorama.

The fifth drill hole in the marker band
Click for original image.

It appears from the most recent image sent back from Curiosity today of its February 25, 2023 attempt to drill into the marker layer on Mount Sharp — the fifth such attempt — the rover finally succeeded in getting deep enough to collect sufficient sample material for analysis.

That image is to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here. Note that it is not yet confirmed from the science team that this drill attempt was deep enough. What makes this particular drilling attempt intriguing is how the many thin layers of the marker layer responded to the stress of the drill. The top layer cracked like a plate and separated from the adjacent lower layer during drilling. It apparently was hard enough to retain most of its structure, and rather than crumble the drill stresses caused a large section to break away and lift off.

The panorama above, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken the same day from this location, produced from 37 photos taken by the rover’s right navigation camera. The cropped section above looks forward at what I previously labeled “a Martian hill of pillows.” The overview map below shows the context of this panorama.
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