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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 4295-4296: A Martian Moon and Planet Earth
Using an onboard focusing process, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, which is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. Curiosity performed the merge on Sept. 4, 2024, at 06:30:48 UTC — sol 4294, or Martian day 4,294 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The onboard focus merge is sometimes performed on images acquired the same sol as the merge, and sometimes using pictures obtained earlier. Focus merging is a method to make a composite of images of the same target acquired at different focus positions to bring as many features as possible into focus in a single image. The MAHLI focus merge also serves as a means to reduce the number of images sent back to Earth. Each focus merge produces two images: a color, best-focus product and a black-and-white image that scientists can use to estimate focus position for each element of the best-focus product. So up to eight images can be merged, but the number of images returned to Earth is two. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024
Today’s two-sol plan contains the usual science blocks filled with contact science and remote science to observe and assess the geology surrounding us. However, the Mastcam team is hoping to capture a special celestial event above the Martian skyline as one of Mars’ moons, Phobos, will be in conjunction with Earth on the evening of the first sol of this plan. So everyone look up, and smile for the camera!
Coming back to our beautiful workspace, in this plan there is a focus on targeting the different colors and tones we can see in the bedrock with our suite of instruments. In the image above we can see some of these varying tones — including gray areas, lighter-toned areas, and areas of tan-colored bedrock — with an image from the MAHLI instrument, Curiosity’s onboard hand lens.
APXS is targeting “Campfire Lake,” a lighter-toned area, and “Gemini,” a more gray-toned area situated in front of the rover. MAHLI is taking a suite of close-up images of these targets too. ChemCam is then taking two LIBS measurements of “Crazy Lake” and “Foolish Lake,” both of which appear to have lighter tones. Mastcam is documenting this whole area with a workspace mosaic and an 8×2 mosaic of “Picture Puzzle,” named after the rock in the image above that was taken during the previous plan. Mastcam will also be capturing a 6×3 mosaic of an outcrop named “Outguard Spire” that has an interesting gray rim. Looking further afield, ChemCam has planned a long-distance RMI image of the yardang unit and Navcam is taking a suprahorizon movie and dust-devil survey for our continued observations of the atmosphere to round out this plan.
Written by Emma Harris, Graduate Student at Natural History Museum, London
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Last Updated Sep 05, 2024 Related Terms
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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 4291-4293: Fairview Dome, the Sequel
This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on sol 4289 — Martian day 4,289 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Aug. 30, 2024 at 03:48:38 UTC. To the left of the crescent-shaped formation in the low-center part of the image, a wheel track is visible along with an “intriguing” batch of shattered rock where Curiosity had previously driven. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 30, 2024
Our backwards drive to “McDonald Pass” got hung up on the steep slopes of “Fairview Dome,” but unlike a lot of movie sequels, our inadvertent return visit to Fairview Dome was at least as good as the original. We took full advantage of the chance to investigate this bedrock rise within Gediz Vallis with multiple contact and remote science targets.
MAHLI and APXS paired up on two different DRT targets of more- and less-nodular spots of bedrock at “Lower Boy Scout Lake” and “Upper Boy Scout Lake.” You can see in the Navcam image above that just beyond the bedrock slab we stopped on, there is a wheel track and a shattered batch of rock. We crushed that bit of rock as we drove backward and were left with a great view of it, including some intriguing bright rock interiors. ChemCam targeted one of those bright rock faces at “North Palisade” and Mastcam acquired a mosaic across the whole field of broken rocks at “Ritter-Banner Saddle.” The churned-up sand of Ritter-Banner Saddle also made for a convenient change detection target as we keep our eye on the wind effects of a potential dust storm rising on Mars. ChemCam had two other opportunities for LIBS analyses at a nodular bedrock target called “Regulation Peak,” and another intriguing vertical rock face with strong color differences called “Simmons Peak.” ChemCam used RMI mosaics to image a collection of higher albedo rocks in Gediz Vallis at a site called “Buckeye Ridge.” Mastcam planned a mosaic of a different part of Gediz Vallis that is in the direction we are driving next, which will help plot those drives and also give us some insight into the boulders strewn about that part of the valley. Closer to the rover, the “Outguard Spire” target was of interest for Mastcam imaging because of its color zonation — the way colors are distributed across different areas, or zones, of the rock. It’s the kind of zonation we intend to study at McDonald Pass. The trough of sand at the “Whitney-Russell Pass” target was of interest for its potential insights into how bedrock blocks break up on Mars.
Monitoring the potential rise of a dust storm meant that the plan was busy with environmental observations. ChemCam acquired a passive sky observation, Navcam collected two rounds of dust-devil imaging, cloud movies, and atmospheric dust measurements, Mastcam acquired multiple atmospheric dust measurements, and REMS ran in longer blocks throughout each sol than it does in normal weather conditions. Dust or not, RAD and DAN passive were planned regularly through the three sols of the plan.
Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
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Last Updated Sep 05, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Technicians test a set of massive solar arrays measuring about 46.5 feet (14.2 meters) long and about 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) high for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside the agency’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 7.Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett NASA and SpaceX are targeting a launch period opening Thursday, Oct. 10, for the agency’s Europa Clipper mission, which will help scientists determine if one of Jupiter’s icy moons could support life. The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Europa Clipper will carry nine instruments and a gravity science experiment aboard to gather detailed measurements as it orbits Jupiter and conducts multiple close flybys of its moon, Europa. Research suggests an ocean twice the volume of all of Earth’s oceans exists under Europa’s icy crust.
Media interested in covering the Europa Clipper launch must apply for media accreditation. Deadlines for accreditation are as follows:
U.S. citizens representing domestic or international media must apply for accreditation by 11:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, Sept. 27. International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m., Friday, Sept. 20. Media requiring special logistical arrangements, such as space for satellite trucks, tents, or electrical connections, should email ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov by Tuesday, Oct. 1.
A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact NASA Kennedy’s newsroom at 321-867-2468.
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371.
Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in a series of prelaunch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel, including a briefing the week of Sept. 9. NASA will communicate additional details regarding the media event schedule as the launch date approaches.
NASA also will post updates on spacecraft launch preparations on NASA’s Europa Clipper blog.
Clipper’s primary science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Europa that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA Headquarters in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
For further details about the mission and updates on launch preparations, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper
-end-
Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
Julian Coltre
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
Julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov
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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 4 min read
Sols 4289-4290: From Discovery Pinnacle to Kings Canyon and Back Again
This image shows the workspace in front of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, taken by the Left Navigation Camera aboard the rover on sol 4287 — Martian day 4,287 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Aug. 28, 2024, at 02:23:27 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 28 2024
We are back … almost, anyways. Today’s parking location is very close to where we parked on sol 4253, and in an area near one of the previous contact science targets “Discovery Pinnacle.” You can read in this blog post that most of the team, this blogger included, was in Pasadena for our team meeting when we were last in this area. That was July and Curiosity was about to turn 12 on Mars. Coming back is a very rare occasion and is always planned carefully. Once or twice during the last 12 years it happened because we saw something “in the rear mirror.” One of the examples is the target “Old Soaker,” where we spotted mud cracks in the images from a previous parking position, and promptly went back because this was such an important discovery. At other times it was carefully planned, such as the “walkabout” at “Pink Cliffs,” which you can watch in this video from as long back as Earth year 2015. In the past few planning cycles, it’s more of the latter as we made our way from Discovery Pinnacle, where we were on sol 4253, “Just passing through” “Russell Pass” and arriving at “Kings Canyon,” our drill location, which we reached on sol 4257. You can follow all the action of the drilling at Kings Canyon on the blogs. It took a while — it always does — because it’s an activity with many steps and investigations to complete. We actually celebrated Curiosity’s 12th birthday at Kings Canyon! We departed on sol 4283, came back via “Cathedral Peak,” and are now near the Discovery Pinnacle location again. After that little walkabout through the history of (some) of Curiosity’s walkabouts, especially the very last one, let’s look at today’s plan.
It is a pretty normal two-sol plan, with a one-hour science block before we drive away from this location. We were greeted by a nicely flat surface, and the engineers informed us that we have all six wheels firmly on flat and stable ground. That’s always a relief, because only then can we use the arm. That nice piece of flat rock Curiosity is so firmly parked on became our science target …well, mostly. Some of the little pebbles on the surface attracted our attention, too. The very eagle-eyed can spot a small white spot in the image above. It’s right between the arm and the rover itself, about where the C is written. That’s a rock that we likely broke up with our wheel and that has a very white part to it. We called it “Thousand Island Lake,” and will image it with MAHLI. APXS is investigating a target called “Eichorn Pinnacle,” squarely on the big flat area. LIBS is also making the most of the large target underneath and in front of us, investigating the target “Nine Lakes Basin.”
In recent blogs you will have read about the dust-storm watch making the atmospheric investigations even more important, so we don’t miss any changes. We are looking for dust devils, atmospheric opacity, and are of course monitoring the weather throughout the plan.
Our drive will hopefully — if Mars agrees — be a long one, and we will also plan an activity that we call MARDI sidewalk. That’s when we take very frequent pictures with the MARDI instrument while driving. This results in a long strip of images nicely showing the nature of the terrain the rover has driven over. This is in addition to the MARDI single frame we are taking every time the rover stops. I often get the question, why are we taking an image just downwards whenever the rover stops? Well, humans are easy to bias toward the outliers, toward the things that look special, and of course the Curiosity team is no exception. For some things this is great, because it allows for the discoveries of new things. But it doesn’t provide an unbiased overview. That’s what MARDI does: It always points down and reliably records the terrain under the rover. We don’t have to do anything but put the commands for that one image into our plan after the drive — something that’s pretty routine after 12 years now!
Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
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Last Updated Aug 29, 2024 Related Terms
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Sols 4287-4288: Back on the Road
This image was taken by Mast Camera (Mastcam) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4284 — Martian day 4,284 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Aug. 24, 2024, at 20:32:43 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Monday, Aug. 26, 2024
Today’s planning day was a good example of how our team comes together to make quick decisions based on new information and science priorities.
The original intent of today’s plan was to perform contact science on some interesting bright-toned rubbly rocks in our workspace, seen in the image above. These rocks were just a short bump away from the location of our last sampling campaign and the team had been eyeing them for a few weeks, interested in the details of their composition from the APXS instrument and their morphology from MAHLI. However, before we ever unstow our robotic arm to perform these types of observations, our Rover Planners and Surface Property Scientists perform a “Slip Risk Assessment.” This assessment is used to determine whether the rover’s wheels are stable on the ground so that we can safely unstow the heavy robotic arm and place the arm-mounted instruments very close to the surface. In today’s case, the team determined that it was not safe to unstow our arm. If the science team was interested in observing the bright-toned rocks in our workspace, it would require adjusting the rover’s position and performing the observations in the next planning cycle, impacting our overall mission timeline.
With this information on hand, the science team had an excellent discussion, quickly assessing the pros and cons of sticking around with a small adjustment to get contact science at this location in our next plan, or continuing down the road to our next waypoint. I always enjoy listening to these discussions; they are led by our Long-Term Planners and provide the opportunity for all science advocates to voice their opinions. In today’s case, the science team decided to move along. This location had been opportunistic to begin with and more juicy science targets are certainly to come. Time is a precious resource to us, and we often consider the timeline cost of any given science observation, weighing the relative science benefit to the cost of planning cycles.
So given this reworking of priorities, today’s two-sol plan was adjusted to include targeted science on the first sol before driving away towards our next waypoint, followed by another sol with untargeted science. Our drive takes us about 25 meters north and we’ll pause part way through the drive to take Mastcam imaging of some bright nodular-appearing rocks to examine their relationship to other rock types.
Between the two sols of this plan, we’ll perform an empty-cell analysis of the CheMin cell used for our last sampling campaign, to determine if we have dumped all the sample out of it for future use with another sampling campaign. As always, we performed our normal environmental monitoring observations.
Onward, Curiosity!
Written by Elena Amador-French, Science Operations Coordinator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Last Updated Aug 28, 2024 Related Terms
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