The Odometer Keeps Turning

While Curiosity continues to blaze a trail to Mount Sharp, the rover takes time to shoot a Martian moon movie.

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Hi, I'm Colette Lohr, Tactical Uplink Lead for Curiosity’s Mission Operations Team

And this is your Curiosity rover report.

Curiosity has continued trailblazing the road to Mount Sharp, racking up just over one and a quarter miles, or 2km on her odometer. Curiosity has been making steady progress since leaving the region known as Glenelg in July. We still have just under 5 miles, or 8km left to go before we reach Mount Sharp.

Curiosity has continued to gather science data on her journey.

She recently captured the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos in occultation. This movie shows the larger moon Phobos passing in front of the smaller moon Deimos using the Mast Camera telephoto lens.

While Curiosity has now traversed beyond Glenelg, we haven’t left this region completely behind. She is able to store soil samples in CHIMRA.

CHIMRA is our tool for manipulating rock and soil samples, and delivering these samples to our instruments. Curiosity processed a rock powder sample that she had carried with her for 75 Sols from our 2nd drill target, Cumberland rock at Glenelg, and delivered it to the SAM instrument, located in the belly of the rover.

SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, is Curiosity’s onboard organic chemistry lab. Scientists will be releasing the results of their analysis some time in the future.

This has been your Curiosity rover report. Please check back for more updates.