Tag Archives: Logan Pass

Curiosity picks new route

Posted on May 22, 2015 by rburnham

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover climbed a hill Thursday to approach an alternative site for investigating a geological boundary, after a comparable site proved hard to reach. The drive of about 72 feet (22 meters) up slopes as steep as 21 … Continue reading →

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Curiosity: Driving up

Posted on May 21, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 991, May 21, 2015. As Curiosity’s rover drivers seek to avoid soft ground, they decided to head uphill — for firmer ground, better looks at an interesting outcrop, and a look-see at the surrounding terrain. The lower slopes of … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘Taking the high road’

Posted on May 21, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 991, May 20, 2015, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: After assessing a few different drive paths to deal with the challenging terrain, the team decided to drive uphill to avoid crossing the ripples near Jocko Butte.  On Sol … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘ChemCam autofocus software’

Posted on May 20, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 990, May 19, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Testing of the new ChemCam automatic focusing software continues to go well–the instrument is returning well-focused data of the quality we got used to early in the mission.  The … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘Back at Jocko Butte’

Posted on May 19, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 987-989, May 18, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: The backwards drive on sol 986 was successful, and over the weekend, Curiosity drove back toward “Jocko Butte”. Before the drive on sol 987, ChemCam had a 5×1 observation … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘Finding a path’

Posted on May 17, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 986, May 15, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: We’ve been having trouble with the path we originally wanted to take through the sand toward the interesting geology at “Mt. Stimson”, so in today’s plan we are going … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘High tilt’

Posted on May 15, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 985, May 14, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Once again, excessive wheel slippage prevented MSL from driving as far as planned, so the tactical team decided to take a break from driving to allow various options to … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘Slippery sand’

Posted on May 14, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 984, May 13, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The MSL tactical team took a day off yesterday to allow Earth and Mars time to synch up; planning is no longer restricted and we will be working every … Continue reading →

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Curiosity: Sandy ripples ahead

Posted on May 13, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 983, May 13, 2015. An 11-frame Navcam composite shows the sandy path lying ahead of the rover as it aims toward Logan Pass. The plan is for Curiosity to drive around the sand patch toward the right. On the … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘More sand traps’

Posted on May 11, 2015 by rburnham

Sol 983, May 11, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The Sol 981 drive got the rover around the troublesome ripples and to the desired location, which gave us a good view of the terrain ahead.  Unfortunately, the images … Continue reading →

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