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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 Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4568-4569: A Close Look at the Altadena Drill Hole and Tailings
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the “Altadena” drill hole using its Mast Camera (Mastcam) on June 8, 2025 — Sol 4564, or Martian day 4,564 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 13:57:45 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
As we near the end of our Altadena drill campaign, Curiosity continued her exploration of the Martian bedrock within the boxwork structures on Mount Sharp. After successfully delivering a powdered rock sample to both the CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) instruments, the focus for sols 4568 and 4569 was to take a closer look at the drill hole itself — specifically, the interior walls of the drill hole and the associated tailings (the rock material pushed out by the drill).
In the image above, you can see that the tone (or color) of the rock exposed within the wall of the drill hole appears to change slightly with depth, and the drill tailings are a mixture of fine powder and more solid clumps. If you compare the Altadena drill site with the 42 drill sites that came before, one can really appreciate the impressive range of colors, textures, and grain sizes in the rocks that Curiosity has analyzed over the past 12 years. Every drill hole marks a window into the past and can help us understand how the ancient environment and climate on Mars evolved over time.
In this two-sol plan, the ChemCam, Mastcam, APXS, and MAHLI instruments coordinated their observations to image and characterize the chemistry of the wall of the drill hole and tailings before we drive away from this site over the coming weekend. Outside of our immediate workspace, Mastcam created two stereo mosaics that will image the boxwork structures nearby as well as the layers within Texoli butte. ChemCam assembled three long-distance RMI images that will help assess the layers at the base of the “Mishe Mokwa” hill, complete the imaging of the nearby boxwork structures, and image the very distant crater rim (about 90 kilometers, or 56 miles away) and sky to investigate the scattering properties of the atmosphere. The environmental theme group included observations that will measure the properties of the atmosphere and also included a dust-devil survey.
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Last Updated Jun 13, 2025 Related Terms
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On May 22, 2025, NASA hosted an Expedition 72 crew debrief and awards ceremony at Space Center Houston, where more than 1,000 attendees gathered to celebrate. The event recognized the achievements of the crew as well as NASA employees and partners whose dedication and support contributed to the expedition’s success. Crew members from Expedition 72 shared reflections and anecdotes from their time on the International Space Station and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to scientific research aboard the orbiting laboratory.
A group photo of participants from the Expedition 72 crew debrief and awards ceremony on May 22, 2025, at Space Center Houston’s IMAX theater. NASA/James Blair The event included four NASA astronauts:
Nick Hague, Crew-9 commander and Expedition 72 flight engineer Butch Wilmore, Boeing Starliner commander and Expedition 72 flight engineer Suni Williams, Boeing Starliner pilot and Expedition 72 commander Don Pettit, Soyuz MS-26 and Expedition 72 flight engineer The Expedition 72 crew also included Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Aleksey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner, who were not in attendance. The cosmonauts served as Crew-9 mission specialist, Soyuz-MS commander, and Soyuz-MS flight engineer, respectively.
NASA astronaut Matt Dominick kicked off the event by striking the ceremonial bell, a tradition symbolizing the end of the mission for the crew and those that support them.
Johnson Space Center Acting Director Stephen Koerner recognized the crew’s commitment to the mission and their role in the advancement of human spaceflight. “These brave men and women make the tough yet rewarding choice to embark on long-duration missions away from their family and friends,” he said. “They do this to conduct groundbreaking research and inspire generations. Spaceflight is hard, but through togetherness we make giant leaps, going further than ever before.”
NASA astronauts (from left) Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore, Expedition 72 flight engineers, pack external research hardware which housed a variety of samples exposed to the vacuum of space such as polymers, photovoltaic devices, and more. The samples were returned to Earth to be examined to understand how space radiation, the extreme thermal environment, micrometeoroids, and more affect materials possibly benefitting the space industry. NASA NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer and Commander respectively, discuss orbital lab maintenance procedures aboard the International Space Station.NASA The Expedition 72 crew dedicated more than 1,000 combined hours to scientific research and technology demonstrations aboard the International Space Station. Their work included enhancing metal 3D printing capabilities in orbit, exploring the potential of stem cell technology for treating diseases, preparing the first wooden satellite for deployment, and collecting samples from the station’s exterior to examine whether microorganisms can survive in the harsh environment of space. They also conducted studies on plant growth and quality, investigated how fire behaves in microgravity, and advanced life support systems, all aimed at improving the health, safety, and sustainability of future space missions.
Pettit also used his spare time and surroundings aboard the station to conduct unique experiments and captivate the public with his photography. Expedition 72 captured a record 1 million photos during the mission, showcasing the unique research and views aboard the orbiting laboratory through astronauts’ eyes.
The expedition was a historic venture, with Williams and Wilmore launching aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test before being integrated with the Expedition 71/72 crew and returning on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9. While working aboard the orbiting laboratory, Williams established a new record for the most cumulative spacewalking time by a woman — 62 hours and 6 minutes — placing her fourth among the most experienced spacewalkers in history. Additionally, Expedition 72 saw the first reboost of the International Space Station by a Dragon spacecraft.
The crew participated in a panel discussion, sharing further details about the expedition including experiments conducted, favorite foods, and experiencing the Aurora Borealis. The conversation closed with a special patch presentation from Wilmore to Williams to highlight her achievement of exceeding Mach 25 in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
Following the panel, an award ceremony recognized team members for their efforts in supporting the mission, with recipients including the crew, NASA employees, and commercial partners.
The Expedition 72 crew poses for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Harmony module with a cake commemorating a total of 3,000 cumulative days in space gained between the individual crew members. Front row (from left): Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, NASA astronaut Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Back row (from left): NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Don Pettit, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, and NASA astronaut Suni Williams.NASA Flight Operations Directorate Acting Director Kjell Lindgren discussed the impact of collaboration with commercial and international partners. “Your collaboration is vital not just to mission success but to the very identity of this program,” he said. “Together, we can demonstrate what global collaboration can achieve in pursuit of excellence and exploration.”
Watch below to recap the Expedition 72 crew members’ journey aboard the International Space Station and to celebrate those who helped make the mission a success.
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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 Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 4 min read
Sols 4561-4562: Prepping to Drill at Altadena
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a recent DRT (Dust Removal Tool) site, showing off the marks created in the rocks by DRT — a motorized, wire-bristle brush on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm — as well as a whitish vein that was revealed after the dust covering it was removed. Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera mounted on the turret at the end of the robotic arm, which provides close-up views of the minerals, textures, and structures in Martian rocks and the surface layer of rocky debris and dust. Using an onboard process, MAHLI merges two to eight images to make a composite image of the same target acquired at different focus positions, to bring many features into focus in a single image. Curiosity merged this composite on June 4, 2025 — Sol 4560. Or Martian day 4,560 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 12:33:42 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025
We are continuing to look for a suitable location to collect a drilled sample in this area. As you may recall from Monday’s plan, we performed a short “bump” of just under 4 meters (about 13 feet) hoping to find a drill target today after Monday’s analysis determined that there were no good targets in our previous workspace. Happily, today’s workspace was much more cooperative, and we were able to select the target “Altadena” as our next potential drill location. Altadena is a name that we’ve been saving for a special target, as its namesake here on Earth is a neighborhood next to JPL that was devastated by the Eaton Fire earlier this year. We’re about to enter our next mapping quadrangle, which will come with a new set of target names, so the team decided that using Altadena as the name for this drill site was an obvious choice.
The big activity in this plan is the next step in the drilling process. This activity is the “preload test,” which determines if the forces on the drill will be good while drilling, and the drill target won’t unexpectedly move or fracture. If we pass the preload test and find that the rock has the chemistry we’re looking for, we’ll be able to proceed with Altadena as our next drill site. If we don’t, we’ll have to decide whether to bump again or resume driving deeper into this potentially boxwork-bearing region.
Of course, the preload test isn’t the only thing we’re doing today. Coming in, it was looking like our time for other activities would be pretty tight due to power constraints imposed by preparations for drilling and keeping the rover warm during the cold Martian winter. However, we’ve recently implemented some new power-optimizing capabilities, which led to us having much more power today than we expected. This meant that we were able to add a whole additional hour of science time in addition to the hour that we already had scheduled.
Unsurprisingly, Altadena gets a lot of love in this plan to characterize it before we drill. This includes a ChemCam LIBS activity and a Mastcam observation, as well as some overnight observations by APXS and some MAHLI images. In addition, Mastcam will be observing some exposed stratigraphy at “Dana Point,” a light-toned vein at “Mission Trails” that will also be a ChemCam LIBS target, a few more nearby troughs, and a couple of sandy patches at “Camp Williams” to observe wind-driven sediment transport. Along with the two LIBS, ChemCam will be using its RMI camera to add to the pile of images we have of the Mishe Mokwa butte and the yardang unit off in the distance.
As the lead for the Atmosphere and Environment (ENV) group today, it looked like I was going to have a pretty light workload due to the power constraints preventing any ENV activities other than our usual REMS, RAD, and DAN observations. With the extra hour of science time, I was able to add a handful of new activities, including three Navcam cloud movies, a Navcam line-of-sight observation of dust within Gale Crater, and a Navcam survey to look for any dust devils that may be swirling around the rover. A pretty decent ENV science haul for a plan that started with nothing!
When we come into planning on Friday, we’ll hopefully have passed the preload test and will be able to turn Altadena into our 43rd drill hole in the coming sols, before we continue driving up the slopes of Mount Sharp.
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Last Updated Jun 06, 2025 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 Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read
Sols 4559-4560: Drill Campaign — Searching for a Boxwork Bedrock Drill Site
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a portion of its workspace, full of interesting but not drillable bedrock, using its Left Navigation Camera on June 2, 2025 — Sol 4558, or Martian day 4,558 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 12:23:24 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Earth planning date: Monday, June 2, 2025
Now that Curiosity has spent a few sols collecting close-up measurements of the rocks in the outer edge of the boxwork-forming geologic unit, the team has decided that it’s time to collect a drill sample. The geochemical measurements by APXS and ChemCam have shown changes since we crossed over from the previous layered sulfate unit, but we can’t figure out the mineralogy from those data alone. As we’ve often seen before on Mars, the same chemical elements can crystallize into a number of different mineral assemblages. That’s even more the case in sedimentary rocks such as we are driving through, in which different grains in our rocks may have formed in different times and places. This also means that when we do get our mineral data, those minerals will tell us a lot about the history of these new-to-us rocks.
On board Curiosity, that mineral analysis is the job of the CheMin instrument, which uses X-ray diffraction to identify minerals. CheMin shines a narrow X-ray beam through a powdered sample in order to generate the diffraction pattern, which means that it needs a drilled sample. So the team today was busy looking for a drillable spot. Unfortunately the rover’s drill reach from today’s parking spot included only rocks that were too fractured or had too much debris sitting on them to be considered likely to produce a good drilled sample, so we will have to move, or “bump,” at least one more time before progressing to the drill preload test, which is the next step in drilling.
In the meantime, we are taking more measurements to understand the range of compositions that can be found in this rock layer. Dust removal (DRT) + APXS + LIBS + MAHLI were all planned for target “Holcomb Valley,” while a short distance away a second DRT/APXS/MAHLI measurement was planned for “Santa Ysabel Valley” and in another direction, a second LIBS for “Stough Saddle.” One long-distance ChemCam remote imaging mosaic was planned to cover a boxwork structure off in the distance. Mastcam had a relatively light day of imaging, with just a couple of small mosaics covering a nearby trough feature, and providing context for the RMI of the boxwork structure, in addition to documenting the two LIBS targets. The modern Mars environment was also recorded with a couple of movies to look for dust-devil activity, a measurement of atmospheric opacity, and a pair of suprahorizon observations to look for clouds, plus the usual passive observations by DAN and REMS to monitor the neutron environment, temperature, and humidity.
I’ll be on rover planning Wednesday as Geology and Mineralogy Science Theme Lead and looking forward to what we find — hopefully some drillable boxwork-unit bedrock!
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Last Updated Jun 04, 2025 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 Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Sols 4556-4558: It’s All in a Day’s (box)Work
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Right Navigation Camera on June 2, 2025 — Sol 4558, or Martian day 4,558 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 12:23:56 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Earth planning date: Friday, May 30, 2025
When you are scheduled to participate in Science Operations for the rover’s weekend plan, you know it’s going to be a busy morning! Assembling the activities for Friday through Sunday (Sols 4556 through 4558) was no exception. I participated on this shift as the “keeper of the plan” for the geology and mineralogy theme group where I worked with members of the science and instrument teams to compile a set of observations for the rover to complete over the weekend. The rover continues to drive over a surface of shallow, sometimes sand-filled depressions that are separated by raised ridges — informally known as the “boxwork structures.” On this Friday, we were tasked with assessing the ground in our immediate vicinity to determine if the low-lying bedrock in the hollows was suitable for drilling.
With a focus on packing the plan with remote sensing activities to understand the bedrock around us, we used the ChemCam laser to analyze the chemistry of two bedrock targets, “La Tuna Canyon” and “Cooper Canyon,” that were also documented by Mastcam. ChemCam and Mastcam also teamed up to image an interesting dark ridge nearby named “Encinal Canyon.” Mastcam created stereo mosaics to document the nature of the candidate drill sites that were near the rover, in addition to the “Blue Sky Preserve” stereo mosaic that beautifully captured the nature of the boxwork structures in front of us. The environmental theme group included some of their favorite activities in the plan to monitor the clouds, wind, and the atmosphere.
Curiosity has successfully completed numerous long drives (about 20+ meters, or 66 feet and beyond) in the past several weeks but this weekend the rover got a bit of a reprieve — the rover will drive approximately 7 meters (about 23 feet) to get situated in front of a possible drill site. I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing what unfolds on Monday!
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Last Updated Jun 03, 2025 Related Terms
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