Curiosity Rover Updates
These updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public. Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 10, 2025 Last Saturday around 20:00 Pacific Standard Time I saw a 22-degree halo encircling our mostly-full Moon and Mars; an entire planet hanging in the sky between our Moon and the atmospheric phenomenon. As…
Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 We are continuing our merry way alongside “Texoli” butte, heading toward the boxworks feature in the distance, our next major waypoint. This is a series of large-scale ridges, which appear from orbital data…
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 Overnight before planning today, Mars reached a solar longitude of 40 degrees. The solar longitude is how we like to measure where we are in a Mars year. Each year starts at 0…
Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 Another successful weekend plan left us about 23 meters (about 75 feet) farther down our Mount Sharp Ascent Route (MSAR), with all our science data downlinked to Earth and the planet clocks aligned…
Earth planning date: Friday, Jan. 31, 2025 Here in Earth’s northern hemisphere, the days are slowly getting longer, bringing with them the promise of an end to winter. While we are anticipating the return of warmer temperatures, just over 100…
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 We’re planning sols 4439 and 4440 on the first day of the Lunar New Year here on Earth, and I’m the Geology/Mineralogy Science Theme Lead for today. The new year is a time…
Earth planning date: Monday, Jan. 27, 2025 I was Geology and Mineralogy (Geo) Science Team lead today, and my day started with a bang and a drum roll — delivered by a rare winter thunderstorm (rare here in England, at…
Earth planning date: Friday, Jan. 24, 2025 Fires are still burning in southern California, continuously affecting so many on our mission. Here in San Diego, where we operate the Mastcams (and MAHLI and MARDI) from Malin Space Science Systems, we…
Earth planning date: Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 Over the weekend Curiosity completed a 38-meter drive (about 125 feet), and the rover is now perched on the rim of a crater named “Rustic Canyon.” Today we planned contact science to search…
Earth planning date: Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 As Emma mentioned on Wednesday, our current drive direction contains a pair of craters, “Runyon Canyon” and the larger “Rustic Canyon” (about 20 meters or 66 feet in diameter). On Wednesday, we planned…