Category Archives: Reports

THEMIS: Ice-rich mantling in Utopia crater

THEMIS Image of the Day, April 16, 2019. This false-color VIS image shows a crater located in Utopia Planitia. The crater’s interior shows ample evidence for an ice-rich mantling material that has slipped and slumped away from the crater’s upraised … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Wrapping up at Aberlady

Sol 2379, April 15, 2019, update by MSL scientist Mariah Baker: With our time at Aberlady coming to a close, the search for our next drill target is in full swing. On Friday, the team discussed two different “bump” options … Continue reading

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Latest weather at Gale Crater and Elysium Planitia

Daily Elysium charts and data (temperature, wind speed, atmospheric pressure) here.

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Curiosity: Looking at Lumphanan

Sol 2376, April 13, 2019. Curiosity’s Remote Micro-Imager took a look at the target that mission scientists have dubbed Lumphanan, tagged as a possible meteorite. Click the image to enlarge it. Sol 2376 raw images (from all cameras).

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HiRISE: Gullies on Gorgonum Chaos mesas

Gullies on Gorgonum Chaos mesas. This observation shows part of Gorgonum Chaos, a large cluster of chaotic terrain found in the Southern Hemisphere. Many regions of chaotic terrain are found at the head of large outflow channels that were scoured … Continue reading

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THEMIS: Arabia Terra crater dunes

THEMIS Image of the Day, April 15, 2019. Today’s VIS image is located in an unnamed crater in Arabia Terra. Dark blue in this combination is typically basaltic sands. The presence of sand dunes with this tone indicated that these … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Refining composition and mineralogy at Aberlady

Sols 2376-77, April 13, 2019, update by MSL scientist Vivian Sun: We are continuing the sequence of drill activities at Aberlady. We will be collecting APXS of the dump pile with two offset observations to better understand any compositional variations, … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Pits and flows

Pits and flows. This observation shows smooth-textured flows on the plateau south of the collapse pit chain of Ophir Catena. HiRISE Picture of the Day archive. [More at links]

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Curiosity update: CheMin success at Aberlady!

Sol 2375, April 12, 2019, update by MSL scientist Kristen Bennett: Today we received the initial results from CheMin’s analysis of the “Aberlady” drill sample, and they look great! This means that CheMin received enough sample and we do not … Continue reading

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InSight: More testing for the ‘mole’

Updated at 5 p.m. PDT (8 p.m. EDT) on April 11: InSight’s Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument completed a new round of diagnostic hammering into the Martian surface on March 26, 2019, while the spacecraft’s seismometer listened in. … Continue reading

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