MastCam-Z full zoom (110 mm) - Roughly processed - Contrast stretched. Normally I'd be sighing about the increased level of atmospheric dust we're seeing recently, but in this case it sort of improves the image.
I reckon Ansel Adams would have been happy with this shot.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
Curiosity Rover Mission Update - Sols 4368-4369: The Colors of Fall – and Mars. Earth planning date: Monday November 18, 2024.
I am in the U.K., where we are approaching the time when trees are just branches and twigs. One tree that still has its full foliage is my little quince tree in my front garden. Its leaves have turned reddish-brown with a hint of orange, fairly dark by now, and when I passed it this afternoon on my way to my Mars operations shift, I thought that these leaves have exactly the colors of Mars! And sure enough, today’s workspace is full of bedrock blocks in the beautiful reddish-brown that we love from Mars. But like that tree, it’s not just one color, but many different versions and patterns, all of many reddish-brown and yellowish-brown colors.
The tree theme continues into the naming of our targets today, with ChemCam observing the target “Big Oak Flat,” which is a flat piece of bedrock with a slightly more gray hue to it. “Calaveras,” in contrast, looks a lot more like my little tree, as it is more reddish and less gray. It’s also a bedrock target, and APXS and MAHLI are observing this target, too. APXS has another bedrock target, called “Murphys” on one of the many bedrock pieces around. MAHLI is of course documenting Murphys, too. Let’s just hope that this target name doesn’t get any additions to it but instead returns perfect data from Mars!
ChemCam is taking several long-distance remote micro-imager images — one on the Gediz Vallis Ridge, and one on target “Mono Lake,” which is also looking at the many, many different textures and stones in our surroundings. The more rocks, the more excited a team of geologists gets! So, we are surely using every opportunity to take images here!
Talking about images… Mastcam is taking documentation images on the Big Oak Flat and Calaveras targets, and a target simply called “trough.” In addition, there are mosaics on “Basket Dome” and “Chilkoot,” amounting to quite a few images of this diverse and interesting terrain! More images will be taken by the navigation cameras for the next drive — and also our Hazcam. We rarely talk about the Hazcams, but they are vital to our mission! They look out from just under the rover belly, forward and backward, and have the important task to keep our rover safe. The forward-looking one is also great for planning purposes, to know where the arm can reach with APXS, MAHLI, and the drill. To me, it’s also one of the most striking perspectives, and shows the grandeur of the landscape so well. If you want to see what I am talking about, have a look at “A Day on Mars” from January of this year.
Of course, we have atmospheric measurements in the plan, too. The REMS sensor is measuring temperature and wind throughout the plan, and Curiosity will be taking observations to search for dust devils, and look at the opacity of the atmosphere. Add DAN to the plan, and it is once again a busy day for Curiosity on the beautifully red and brown Mars. And — hot off the press — all about another color on Mars: yellowish-white!
Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
Source for this blog and the archive of all blogs (with all the links and the original raw images etc) https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4368-4369-the-colors-of-fall-and-mars/
These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
This image was acquired on Nov. 20, 2024 (Sol 1334) at the local mean solar time of 16:26:38.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
4-tile Left NavCam - For scale the abrasion patch has a diameter of 5 cm (2 inches)
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Agreed, the LED images will tell a tale. I'm guessing they may have a small walk about and possibly another abrasion (or two) before deciding to core, but it's hard to read their minds. With the job cuts, I'm assuming any chance of more frequent mission updates has little chance
Could be here for a few days :)
Data extracted from JPL's M2020 JSON feeds
End of drive NavCam - NASA/JPL-Caltech
I assume we'll see some contact science here :)
Rover data JSON: https://mars.nasa.gov/mmgis-maps/M20/Layers/json/M20_waypoints.json
View the official on-line version on https://mars.nasa.gov/maps/location/?mission=M20/
Curiosity Rover Mission Update - Sols 4366–4367: One of Those Days on Mars (Sulfate-Bearing Unit to the West of Upper Gediz Vallis).
Earth planning date: Friday November 15, 2024.
The Monday plan and drive had executed successfully, so the team had high hopes for APXS and MAHLI data on several enticing targets in the rover's workspace. Alas, it was not to be: The challenging terrain had resulted in an awkwardly perched wheel at the end of the drive, so we couldn't risk deploying the arm from this position. Maybe next drive!
We did plan a busy weekend of non-arm science activities regardless. Due to a “soliday” the weekend has two sols instead of three, but we had enough power available to fit in more than three hours of observations. The two LIBS observations in the plan will measure the composition of the flat, reddish material in the workspace that is fractured in a polygonal pattern (“Bloody Canyon”) and a nearby rock coating in which the composition is suspected to change with depth (“Burnt Camp Creek”). One idea is that the reddish material could be the early stage version of the thicker dark coatings we've been seeing.
A large Mastcam mosaic (“Yosemite”) was planned to capture the very interesting view to the rover's north. Nearby and below the rover is the layer of rocks in which the “Mineral King” site was drilled on the opposite side of the channel back in March. This is a stratum of sulfate-bearing rock that appears dark-toned from orbit and we're interested to know how consistent its features are from one side of the channel to the other. Higher up, the Yosemite mosaic also captures some deformation features that may reveal past water activity, and some terrain associated with the Gediz Vallis ridge. So there's a lot of science packed into one mosaic!
Two long-distance RMI mosaics were planned; one is to image back into the channel, where there may be evidence of a late-stage debris flow at the base of the ridge. The second looks “forward” from the rover's perspective instead, into the wind-shaped yardang unit above us that will hopefully be explored close-up in the rover's future. This yardang mosaic is intended to form one part of a stereo observation.
The modern environment on Mars will also be observed with dust devil surveys on both sols, line-of-sight and tau observations to measure atmospheric opacity (often increased by dust in the atmosphere), and zenith and suprahorizon movies with Navcam to look for clouds. There will also be standard passive observations of the rover's environment by REMS and DAN.
We'll continue driving westward and upward, rounding the Texoli butte to keep climbing through the sulfate-bearing unit. It's not always easy driving but there's a lot more science to do!
Written by Lucy Lim, Participating Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Source for this blog and the archive of all blogs (with all the links and the original raw images etc) https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4366-4367-one-of-those-days-on-mars-sulfate-bearing-unit-to-the-west-of-upper-gediz-vallis/
These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
After the 8.9 meters drive on 1327, there was another drive on 1332 of around 50 meters (point-to-point distances). Neither of these drives have been included on the official map, or included in the latest rover JSON URL. I'm assuming that this is related to the job losses announced at JPL earlier this week (>300 jobs lost)
I was trying and failing to put this in my own words, then I found this plain English summary of this doc... link1
Key data returned from robots exploring the surface of Mars are the images they take of the landscape and rock formations. These are sent back to Earth for detailed investigation and analysis by the science teams. It is difficult to collect reliable measurements from photographs, as they do not truly represent the three-dimensionality of the features within them. In this paper, we present a new 3-D visualization software tool, PRo3D, which enables visualization of 3-D digital models of rock outcrops imaged by robots exploring the surface of Mars. These 3-D models are constructed from mosaicked photographs taken by the stereo panoramic cameras which are positioned on a mast on the rover. This provides a huge advantage to scientists who want to study and analyze the terrain and geology of exposed rock outcrops which surround the rover. Here we apply the tools available in PRo3D to sedimentological and structural analysis of 3-D Digital Outcrop Models of four areas explored by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity and Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover science teams and show that this method of 3-D visualization and analysis allows scientists to carry out important procedures that would be conducted in a terrestrial field geology campaign.
anther good read.... link2
Unless it was a significant amount of dust on the camera lens or the mirror that it uses to look down into the imaging chamber I doubt that it would affect operations at all, as they only use the camera to ensure the sample is still in the tube prior to sealing it. But why else image it without a tube, it appears to be a waste of bandwidth as they acquired and then downlinked 20 tiles in all from the CacheCam. Hopefully the team will enlighten us soon why it was imaged, if not we can wait for the mission managers report in the PDS, those reports of often goldmines of information. The report covering sol 1324 activities should be available in the M2020 PDS (release number 12) scheduled to be issued on April 3, 2025 https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/mars2020/index.htm
The imaging chamber was empty, but it captured some out of focus pebbles on the ground under the cache storage area (I assembled all 16 tiles) they first took a 16 tile image of the empty chamber back on sol 88. I assume that was an engineering checkout of the the camera.
I have an unusual guess as to why they imaged it. Not sure if you noticed, but there are motes of dust on the NavCam lenses, the motes are particularly noticeable in the all-sky images from sol 1323. I'm assuming that could have been the result of a dust devil, or we are in a particularly dusty area kicked up by the prevailing wind? Not sure if you also noticed we can no longer see the far rim wall of Jezero (due to recent increasing dust levels) If we've noticed, the team will have noticed as well, so they may have imaged the open chamber of the CacheCam to see if there is any dust on the mirror it uses, or the CacheCam camera lens. Maybe a little far fetched, but I often have an over active mind :)
The rover has just driven South (a short distance on 1324) and it is currently pointing East. It could be an intermediate waypoint in a longer drive, but why East? Expand my theory to moving the cameras away from the prevailing wind :) (active mind LOL)
EDIT The sol 1324 waypoint mentioned earlier was an intermediate waypoint, the remainder of the drive was to the West. Close to 100 meters and a climb of ~25 meters. Waiting for the formal data, will share ASAP
I wish you faster speeds in the future, it holds some wonderous images and data. Take care :)
Milly’s Foot Path
The rover is in a map quadrangle called 'Bishop', so all targets are named after Bishop in Owens Valley (California)
Milly’s Foot Path is a path through a rugged chute full of broken rocks . See image on https://www.flickr.com/photos/psa104/15269986920
I guess a member of the MS team may have ventured up that path at some time in the past....
"A Climber's Guide to the High Sierra" page 221 gives a fair account of the passes and identifies their namesakes as Lucy Brown, wife of Bolton Coit Brown who crossed the divide in 1896. Milly's is named for Mildred Jentsch who with Sylvia Kershaw crossed the saddle just north of Mt. Genevra in July 1953.
Here's how they assign names based on map quadrangles....
Before touching down in Gale crater Curiosity's landing ellipse and the foothills of Aeolis Mons (Mt. Sharp) were divided up into 151 map quadrangles to aid geological mapping. Each of these square areas of interest spans 0.025 degrees in latitude by 0.025 degrees in longitude, each quadrangle measures about 1.5 kilometers square or about 1.22 x 1.22 km. Each quadrangle is assigned a name of a town with a population less than 100,000 people.
Map quadrangles are usually named after towns close to notable regions of geological interest on Earth, its name then provides the source of the target names within each quadrangle.
List of Quadrangles the rover has visited:-
Yellowknife: Quadrangle #51: Yellowknife a city in northwestern Canada as well as group of rocks from the same region. The rocks were formed 2.7 billion years ago from both volcanoes and sediments laid down by water, and were deposited over 4-billion-year-old rocks, the oldest known on Earth.
Mawson: Quadrangle #65: Mawson, Antarctica, permanent base and research outpost in Antarctica, named after the Antarctic geologist and explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.
Coeymans: Quadrangle #64. Takes its name from the town of Coeymans in upstate New York, located near the fossil‐rich Coeymans Limestone Formation.
Kimberley: Quadrangle #78. Takes its name from the northernmost region of Western Australia, the site of many important geologic investigations of Precambrian rocks.
Hanover: Quadrangle #77, Takes its names from a New Hampshire city.
Shoshone: Quadrangle #91. Takes its name from Shoshone Village in Inyo County, California located just outside Death Valley National Park and the Nopah Range Wilderness Area.
Arlee: Quadrangle #90. Takes is name from after a geological district in Montana
Windhoek: Quadrangle #104. Takes its name from a geological district in Namibia.
Bar Harbor: Quadrangle #118 Takes its name from Bar Harbor, Maine
Kuruman: Quadrangle #132. This quadrangle is named after a charming town situated on the edge of the Kalahari desert in South Africa. Notably, the town of Kuruman is the namesake for the Kuruman Iron Formation, a ~2.46 billion year sedimentary rock that is rich in hematite. Hematite is the same mineral we can see is distributed throughout the Vera Rubin Ridge from orbital data! The target names in this quadrangle are pulled from famous geological features from South Africa and nearby Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Biwabik: Quadrangle #119, the Biwabik name was selected because of the city's connection with the Mesabi Range, which contains large deposits of Precambrian iron ore.
Torridon: Quadrangle #133, Named after a village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, which is near an important geological formation called the Torridonian Supergroup. Therefore, all of the names assigned to targets in this region of Curiosity's traverse come from landforms, geologic formations, and towns in that part of Scotland.
Nontron: Quadrangle #134, 'Nontron' is named after a commune in the Dordogne in southwestern France. The Nontron quadrant name is particularly appropriate for the clay-bearing terrain we find ourselves in as Nontron is the type locality for a clay mineral called nontronite. Nontronite is part of the smectite group of clays, which are the most common types of clays on Mars.
Roraima: Quadrangle #147. The Roraima quadrant is named after the northern-most state of Brazil and Mount Roraima, which is the highest peak in the Pakaraima mountains which sits between Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana. The terrain in the Roraima region on Earth looks somewhat similar to the area Curiosity is in - with flat-topped hills and some steep slopes.
Kalavryta: Quadrangle #148 Kalavryta is named after a town in Greece, due west of Athens and near the Chelmos-Vouraikos UNESCO Global Geopark, a region that consists of 40 unique geological sites including caves, karstic springs, rivers, alpine lakes, and fossil sites.
Bishop: (Current Quadrangle) Bishop California is located in Owens Valley, and is the starting point for trips into the High Sierra, including some awesome geology. It feels like a fitting name for this part of Curiosity’s ascent of Mt. Sharp!
I wish they would release this sort of update more frequently :)
I hope the agencies that govern the space fairing nations continue to fund exploration to further our understanding of our solar system and beyond
What have they done with Ken
I heard reports of persistent banging on a locked storage room door at JPL, but strangely no one could find the key ;)
Can mean a lot of things, sometimes they could be metamorphic rocks. Basically they are interesting because this rover has not conducted any contact science on a white rock since arriving in Jezero crater. Only once they've completed an investigation will we know what type it is
I just used the Lemmy 'Block User' function for the first time.... Worked like a charm, but I hope I don't need it too often.