By 
August 16th, 2023
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 3919, August 15, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3920 tasks.
“Curiosity is behaving much as you would as you climb a mountain. You pause occasionally to look around at what lies beneath your boots – the reward for your hard work up to that point,” reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland. “You also take time to enjoy the view and turn your gaze uphill to the path ahead – the unknown enticing you forward.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3919, August 15, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Workspace targets
The Curiosity rover has been appreciating the chemistry, mineralogy and texture of two targets in the workspace.
“Ntourntourvana” is on layered bedrock with a vein cutting through it, and “Agridi” is a spindly, almost flower-like, resistant feature poking out of the bedrock.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) RMI taken on Sol 3919, August 15, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
“One could say we are stopping to smell the flowers. The latter will be achieved by acquiring multiple mosaics of the terrain of Gediz Vallis Ridge swelling ahead of us and an appreciative look to the east toward “Kukenan” butte,” Minitti points out.
Steady climb
Kukenan once towered above Curiosity as it entered “Marker Band Valley,” but the robot’s steady climb has brought Mars researchers high enough to now look edge on at some of its layers.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3919, August 15, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A recently scripted drive will have the rover image the terrain ahead of it to plot the next steps forward.
“Both before and after the next leg upward, we will keep a constant eye on the weather, to ensure we stay safe and warm in the chilly Gale winter,” Minitti concludes. “Onward and upward!”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3919, August 15, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Posted in Space News
