Curiosity continues her steady winter drive through the Kalavryta quadrangle with her sights set on the Gediz Vallis ridge ahead!
Earth planning date: Wednesday August 8, 2023
Curiosity continues her steady winter drive through the Kalavryta quadrangle with her sights set on the Gediz Vallis ridge ahead! Behind her, Curiosity leaves evidence of her route as wheel tracks in the sand and dust – a robotic version of footprints on the Martian surface. Interestingly, the gaps in the rover wheels were designed with a pattern that leaves an impression for the letters “J,” “P” and “L” in Morse Code on the soft Martian sand. “JPL” is, of course, an abbreviation for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where Curiosity was designed and built, and the site of her mission operations. Not only is it cool to leave “JPL” temporarily stamped on the terrain (the wheel prints will eventually be erased by wind and sand), these patterned tracks are also a useful driving tool for visually measuring the precise distance between drives. You can read more about Curiosity’s wheel design here.
Today we developed a 2-sol plan where sol 3914 included targeted science, a drive, and post-drive imaging. We investigated the intriguing bedrock at the “Skepasto” target using the DRT, APXS, MAHLI and a multispectral Mastcam image. We also planned a ChemCam LIBS target at the nearby “Anastasi” target to characterize the chemical diversity of the local bedrock, which will be documented by a multispectral Mastcam image. A nearby trough will be characterized by a Mastcam stereo image, and we had enough time and power to schedule a long-distance ChemCam RMI image of Gediz Vallis ridge to document the different types of rocks near the top of the ridge – a view that will be harder to see as we continue driving closer to the ridge itself.
Environmental imaging over this 2-sol plan includes Mastcam basic tau measurements to analyze dust in the atmosphere, a suprahorizon movie for cloud observations, and a dust devil survey.
While Curiosity is quickly approaching the base of the Gediz Vallis ridge, many of us here on Earth are gearing up for a science campaign to understand the nature, origin, and evolution of this ridge and how it fits into the larger Gediz Vallis system within Gale crater – truly exciting times are ahead!
Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
