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By Space Force
The 2024 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference, hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association, offered DAF senior leaders an opportunity to share their views on modernization and readiness in response to emerging security threats, while reaffirming the DAF’s commitment to reoptimization.
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By Space Force
The panel discussed the development and realignment of the department’s commands during an era of Great Power Competition.
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By Space Force
SPoC and DAF senior leaders came together to discuss exercising for Great Power Competition during a panel at Air, Space and Cyber Conference.
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Sols 4309–4310: Leaning Back, Driving Back
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captured this image of a large fractured slab of bedrock, taken by Right Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4307 — Martian day 4,307 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — on Sept. 17, 2024 at 15:50:36 UTC. Earth planning date: Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024
The lengthy drive planned on Monday executed as expected, and we came in today to find our rover parked at a jaunty angle on a sloped ridge. There were some worries that the slope might limit our ability to use the arm for contact science in this plan (we don’t want to do anything that might cause the rover to slide down the slope!), but after some careful consideration, we received the good news that all six of our wheels are holding on firmly to the ground, so there was no risk of slipping.
On Monday, two different options for today’s plan were laid out. The first option, a “full contact science” plan where we don’t drive, was to be executed if Monday’s drive put us exactly where we hoped. The second, a “touch-and-go” plan where we do some light contact science before driving away, was to be executed if the drive didn’t put us where we wanted to be. As it happened, the rover was a little too enthusiastic about driving, and actually put our desired workspace under its body rather than in front where the arm could reach it. There’s always a little uncertainty in the final position after such a long drive! So, we decided to stick with a touch-and-go plan that includes a tiny backwards drive of less than a metre to reposition our desired target in front of the rover.
Although we need to re-position, we aren’t slowing down on science for even a second. We are parked in front of a large fractured slab of bedrock, which can be seen in the above image. This slab became the contact science target for this plan with DRT and APXS activities on “The Minster.” Mastcam is getting a workout today as well, with large mosaics of “North Channel,” “Buckeye Ridge,” “Quinn,” and “Island Pass.” These mosaics are all documenting various aspects of the ridge we’re sat on and the edge of the Gediz Vallis Channel, including sedimentary rocks, white sulphate materials, and gravels and fine-grained materials. ChemCam is also taking a turn on the bedrock slab with a LIBS activity on “Grand Sentinel” and a mosaic of some exposed white stones off in the distance.
The second sol of the plan, after our short drive, is largely taken over by environmental science activities, though there is our usual post-drive ChemCam AEGIS. These activities include a Mastcam tau and Navcam line-of-sight to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere around and above us, as well as a dust devil movie, suprahorizon cloud movie, and some Navcam deck monitoring to see if our driving or the wind is moving around any of the sand and dust on the rover deck. The team is also taking the usual set of REMS, RAD, and DAN observations.
Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
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Last Updated Sep 19, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Sols 4307-4308: Bright Rocks Catch Our Eyes
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captured this image while exploring a rock-strewn channel of Gediz Vallis on the Red Planet. Mission scientists were particularly intrigued to investigate several bright-toned rocks (at the middle-right, bottom-right and bottom-center of the image), similar to rocks that Curiosity had encountered previously that were unexpectedly rich in sulfur. This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera aboard Curiosity on Sol 4306 — Martian day 4,306 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — on Sept. 16, 2024 at 12:47:18 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Monday, Sept. 16, 2024
We made good progress through Gediz Vallis in the weekend drive, landing in a segment of the channel containing a mix of loose rubble and other channel-filling debris. Amongst the jumbled scene, though, particular objects of interest caught our eye: bright rocks. In past workspaces in Gediz Vallis, similar bright rocks have been associated with very high to almost pure sulfur contents. As all good geologists know, however, color is not diagnostic, so we cannot assume these are the same as sulfur-rich rocks we have encountered previously. The only way to know is to collect data, and that was a significant focus of today’s plan.
We planned multiple mosaics across the examples of bright rocks visible in the image above. Mastcam and ChemCam RMI will cover “Bright Dot Lake” and “Sheep Creek” both in the right midfield of the image. Mastcam imaged the example in the bottom right corner of the image at “Marble Falls,” and ChemCam LIBS targeted one of the small bright fragments along the bottom of the image at “Blanc Lake.” There was also a small bit of bright material in the workspace, but unfortunately, it was not reachable by APXS. APXS analyzed a spot near the bright material, at target “Frog Lake,” and MAHLI was able to tack on a few extra images around that target that should capture the bright material. MAHLI also imaged a vuggy target in the workspace at “Grasshopper Flat.” The wider context of the channel was also of interest for imaging, so we captured the full expanse of the channel with one Mastcam mosaic, and focused another on mounds distributed through the channel at target “Copper Creek.”
Even with all this rock imaging, we did not miss a beat with our environmental monitoring. We planned regular RAD, REMS, and DAN measurements, mid and late day atmospheric dust observations, a cloud movie, and dust devil imaging.
Our drive is planned to take us up onto one of the ridges in the channel. Will we find more bright rocks there? Or something new and unexpected that was delivered down Gediz Vallis by some past Martian flood or debris flow? Only the channel knows!
Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
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Last Updated Sep 17, 2024 Related Terms
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