Sol 1339-40, May 11, 2016, update from USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: 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… [More at link]