Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The message from those steering NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is that sandy Martian valleys are in the rover’s near future!

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just crossed one stretch of rocks hazardous to its wheels and may soon reach rocks different from any it has examined so far.

As it approaches the second anniversary of its landing on Mars –10:32 p.m. PDT, Aug. 5, 2012 — the rover is also approaching its first close look at bedrock that is part of Mount Sharp, the layered mountain in the middle of Mars’ Gale Crater.

Damage to Curiosity’s aluminum wheels from driving across similar terrain last year prompted a change in route planning to skirt such rock-studded terrain wherever feasible.

The main map here shows the assortment of landforms near the location of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover as the rover’s second anniversary of landing on Mars nears.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Curiosity spent much of July 2014 crossing an upland area called “Zabriskie Plateau,” where embedded, sharp rocks presented hazards for the rover’s wheels.