Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3381. Distance driven since landing is16.9 miles/27.19 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now wrapping up Sol 3382 duties.

Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, reports the robot is continuing its trek towards the “Greenheugh pediment.”

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We passed along this area on our detour to The Prow, and our sedimentologists have a long list of imaging wishes, features which caught their eyes on the initial pass through and which we now get the chance to really examine in detail as we skirt along the base of the pediment.

Stitched together from 28 images, this view was captured on April 9, 2020, Sol 2729 after the rover ascended a steep slope, part of a geologic feature called “Greenheugh Pediment.”
The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, provided the panorama.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

New vantage point

From a new vantage point, the rover’s Mastcam and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) are imaging the buttes and hills around it, Mastcam focusing on the “Blackcraig” and “Maringma” buttes, and ChemCam taking long distance imagery of the pediment.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We are also adding to our geochemical analyses along here too,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) are to analyze the bedrock target “Tantallon Castle” and ChemCam will examine the target “Corpach Wreck.”

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Retraced steps

“Our past couple of drives have been in the order of [164 -197 feet] 50-60 meters as we retraced our steps over known terrain, but as we get closer to the pediment and the steep climb up, our drives will slow down,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.

Recently, an all star, all female, rover planning team planned a drive of nearly 80 feet (24 meters) drive, O’Connell-Cooper reports, “shorter than recent drives, but which will take over an hour as we slowly pick our way forward!”