I've not had the pleasure of visiting any of those analog locations, but I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting a few of the remote deserts in the middle East in my working years. Granted I was there for work, but did get to explore / enjoy the places during downtime :) I'm with you regarding the need to be sure of the environment before we put boots on the Martian surface, but that could have been done years ago, even decades ago. The 60's was an amazing time to witness what was being achieved. Hopefully there will be a similar period in the future. Time will tell.
paulhammond5155
joined 1 year ago
This image was taken by the MARDI camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4363 (November 14, 2024) just after 8am local Mars Solar Time.
The Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) acquired hundreds of natural colour images at a rate of 4 frames per second during Curiosity’s descent to the Martian surface on August 6th, 2012.
Still operational on the surface of Mars, MARDI is now used to image under the rover to support science and engineering activities.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Assembled from 15 overlapping L-MastCam images acquired on November 13, 2024. Bayer reconstruction by fredk
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSS/fredk
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1326 - Traverse map. Looks perfectly placed to check the western edge of Pico Turquino
(lemmy.world)
Screen capture of the online mission map
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1326 - Another drive to the west - 'Pico Turquino' now filling this end-of-drive image
(lemmy.world)
post drive 4-tile L-NavCam. Now at site 62.0. Details and map for the drive/climb are not yet available, will share ASAP
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The 4360 drive path is highlighted in yellow
15 overlapping Bayer reconstructed L-MastCam frames.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk
Are we really passing up all those tasty-textured boulders on the hill??
It's certainly looking that way. I've wanted boots on the ground since the Apollo missions were completed. Certainly not going to happen in what's left before they nail down my pine lid. That's for the younger one's to experience...
It looks like it has been polished by eons of wind blown dust particles
Nicely done, I preferred the older JPL mission traverse maps as used on the early years of the MSL mission, as each waypoint and some of the larger features were labeled. I can only assume that the new style interactive maps can not cope with that level of detail.
Look close - You'll see one of the rear wheels perched on a rock.
They will likely not perform any arm work in this state.
Apologies for the stitching errors (upper right of the slope) MS-ICE didn't do a great job this time, and I missed it before sharing
You mean “notional path to the SSW”, Paul, no?
They chose North on 1301 :) see https://mars.nasa.gov/maps/location/?mission=M20
Not quite the place I was thinking of, but we have a good selection of targets for arm work :)
My bad, SSW... Fat fingers 😮
This is a 4-tile end-of-drive NavCam. The rear of the rover is pointing NE. Assembled in MS-ICE - Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The rover is currently driving up the rim wall of Jezero crater. The rim wall was created by a huge impact in Mars early history. So we could be looking at some of the oldest rocks that were uplifted during the impact. I'm clearly not a geologist, so it will be interesting to see the results of the investigations of the rocks in this region by the science team.
His video titles are often clickbait, but on the whole I enjoy his content.
ICYMI - They just drove downslope to a field full of small white (light toned) rocks :)