Happy birthday, Curiosity! As of today, the rover has beenon the surface of Mars for two Mars years (almost four Earth years)! Tocelebrate, we have a new pressrelease discussing our ongoing environmental measurements.
Happy birthday, Curiosity! As of today, the rover has been
on the surface of Mars for two Mars years (almost four Earth years)! To
celebrate, we have a new press
release discussing our ongoing environmental measurements. These sorts of
systematic measurements become more useful the longer the rover is on the
surface to collect them, because we can compare how conditions change from year
to year.
Of course, we had other ways to celebrate too. Our French
colleagues at CNES (Centre national d’études spatiales) made a Mars-themed cake,
complete with a little rover exploring a delicious-looking cocoa-dusted martian
surface!
The mission doesn’t stop for us to eat cake though. Today we
planned Sols 1339 and 1340, continuing our drill campaign at the target “Okoruso”.
On Sol 1339, MAHLI will observe a pile of drill tailings that was dumped
without being sieved. CheMin will complete the analysis from the Sol 1338 plan,
and APXS will make an overnight measurement of the dump pile. On Sol 1340, we
have a targeted science block with ChemCam passive and active observations of
the dump pile, and active observations of the targets “Kobos 2”, “Stampriet”,
and “Swartmodder”. Mastcam will document those targets, and then Mastcam and
Navcam will make some atmospheric dust observations.
Here’s to many more martian birthdays for our rover! We
still have a long way to go to catch up with Opportunity’s >6.5 Mars years
of activity! by Ryan Anderson -Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL. 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
Written by Ryan Anderson, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
