By 
June 3rd, 2015
Souls behind the Sols. Curiosity controllers celebrate 1,000 sols of Mars exploration.
Credit: JPL
Control teams are wrapping up operations of the NASA Curiosity Mars rover – preparing for the upcoming solar conjunction.
Solar conjunction is the period when Earth and Mars, in their march around the Sun, are obscured from each other by the Sun. That means no communication between Earth and the two active Mars rovers – Curiosity and Opportunity.
This year, solar conjunction is from about June 7 to June 21, 2015.
Post-conjunction
Efforts are underway on planning for the resumption of activities after conjunction.
This image was taken by Curiosity’s Front Hazcam: Right B on June 2, 2015, Sol 1003.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We don’t know precisely when tactical planning will resume, as the ability to communicate with spacecraft as Mars passes behind the Sun depends on variable solar activity,” says Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Center in Flagstaff, Arizona and a mission team member on Curiosity.
“The expectation is that the next tactical planning day will be June 25th (Sol 1026), but the schedule probably won’t firm up until that week”, Herkenhoff notes.
Sailing past 1,000 sols
Of late, Curiosity’s Mastcam has taken images of the Sun to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
Mastcam is also taking images of various targets near the rover, to be compared with images of the same targets taken after conjunction, Herkenhoff adds, to look for changes caused by Martian winds.
Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The rover performed the merge on May 29, 2015, Sol 998.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“During the break from tactical operations, the science team will have more time to analyze the wealth of data the rover has returned over the past 1000 sols,” Herkenhoff explains.
Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012.
Posted in Space News
