By 
May 15th, 2024
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now surveying its surroundings.
Emma Harris, a graduate student at the Natural History Museum in London, England is studying “Texoli butte” to see very high detail of rocks hundreds of meters away via the robot’s suite of instruments.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument has gazed long distance at Texoli butte by way of the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI).
Glimpse between buttes
A recent plan also called for looking at a structure further up Gediz Vallis channel that the rover won’t be driving up to named “Milestone Peak.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The long-distance observations are really useful in ensuring we can see everything we need to, even if we don’t drive super close,” Harris reports. “We then take a glimpse between the buttes of Gediz Vallis and above the sulfate-bearing unit we are currently driving in to the yardang unit for the final long-distance RMI of this plan.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Close-in duties too
Curiosity’s super vision is also looking at the atmosphere, Harris notes, with the rover’s Mastcam gauging the amount of dust in the atmosphere in a tau measurement, and Navcam will take a suprahorizon movie as well as being on the lookout for dust devils.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B Sol 4185 taken on May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As well as really far away, Curiosity is a specialist at looking and taking measurements of rocks right in front of us.
Closer-in duties involve Curiosity taking Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) measurements and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) observations on two nearby rocks named ‘Tenaya Lake’ and ‘Buck Lake.’
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Morning light on Mars
On the same rock as Buck Lake, ChemCam will be taking a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) measurement on a target named ‘Illilouette Falls,’ and another rock a little further away called ‘Redwood Canyon,’ as well as a passive observation on a dark-toned rock named ‘Cox Col.’
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Mastcam will document these observations, as well as looking back at the south side of Pinnacle Ridge we have just driven around,” Harris explains. In total, Mastcam will spend 1 hour documenting the rocks at the Gediz Vallis Ridge, including a 15×3 mosaic during an early morning wake-up call to take advantage of the morning light on Mars.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4185, May 15, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Posted in Space News
fascinating