Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Mastcam Left image acquired on Sol 1874, November 13, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Now in Sol 1877, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached a new milestone in driving – 11 miles (17.70 kilometers) — since landing in August 2012.

Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B photo taken on Sol 1875, November 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Science teams have been identifying and working out a plan to characterize several high-priority science targets, brought about due to the robot sitting right on the boundary between two geologic units observed from orbit.

Upper unit

Reports Christopher Edwards, a planetary geologist from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Curiosity is set to drive over this contact between the lighter-toned, lower unit and the darker-toned, upper unit of the Vera Rubin Ridge.

Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1875, November 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“These brightness differences observed from orbit are quite striking and at Curiosity’s current position, both of these units were visible and reachable by the arm,” Edwards adds.

Very steep slope

In the plan, the robot will conduct contact science on a light-toned block dubbed “Fort Brown” and a dark-toned pebble dubbed “Middleton.”

Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) image acquired on Sol 1875, November 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

“These targets will have Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) data acquired of them, illuminating their major element chemistry. Curiosity will carry out these contact science activities all while parked on a very steep slope,” Edwards notes, a slope roughly 19 degrees, “which is about as steep as the steepest road on Earth, Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand.”

Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 1876, November 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

Journey continues

Edwards says that, in addition to the two contact science targets, the rover will measure several similarly appearing targets with the remote sensing Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

“In the days to come Curiosity will gain a much better understanding of these darker-toned materials as it continues on its journey up Mt. Sharp,” Edwards concludes.

Traverse map

A recently issued map of Curiosity’s whereabouts through Sol 1873 shows the route driven by the robot through the 1873 Martian day, or sol.

Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up.

The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).

From Sol 1871 to Sol 1873, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 1.80 feet (0.55 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 11.00 miles (17.70 kilometers).

The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.