A Softer Trek to Mount Sharp

On the second anniversary of NASA Curiosity on Mars, the rover navigates a sandy valley on its way to Mount Sharp.

TRANSCRIPT

I’m Erisa Hines. I’m a Curiosity Rover Planner and this is your Curiosity Rover Report.

Today we’re celebrating Curiosity’s second Earth year on Mars. That means that she’s been on the surface over 700 Martian days.

Curiosity’s first year was primarily focused on science, mainly due to all of the interesting places that we found right around the area where we landed.

For the second year, we’ve been much more focused on driving.
She has about three kilometers to go before we reach the base of Mt. Sharp.

The team has carefully selected a path through a series of sand-filled canyons along the way. The goal is not to drive through the middle of these canyons where the sand is the deepest but to sort of pick a path off to the side of them where we are on solid but soft terrain to take care of the wheels as we continue the journey.

We plan to make a couple of brief stops along the way; places that we’ve designated as scientifically interesting. We’ll go ahead and take the opportunity to study those areas so that we have a better understanding of what’s ahead as we approach the mountain.

This has been your Curiosity Rover Report. Check back for more updates. Happy Anniversary, Curiosity!