THEMIS Image of the Day, February 20, 2017. Today’s VIS image shows dust devil tracks on the plains of Aonia Terra. As the dust devil moves across the surface it scours the fine dust particles, revealing the darker rock surface below.
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Sol 1614-16, February 17, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The Sol 1612 drive went well, and there is a nice bedrock block in the arm workspace. We received a bit more data than expected before planning started, but not enough to finalize drive plans and contact science targets. As expected, we received more data during planning, including color images of the arm workspace that were very useful in selecting contact science targets. The late arrival of the necessary data caused delays in the standard uplink planning timeline, but the tactical team did a great job and we have an excellent weekend plan. It’s good to see REMS extended blocks back in the plan after the successful… [More at link]
Sol 1612, February 17, 2017. Classic views from the Hazcams, front and back. Mt. Sharp on the horizon ahead and Ireson Hill behind on the right. The Bagnold Sands make a sea out of which layered rocks rise like islands. (Click either image to enlarge it.)
Sol 1612 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location.
Sol 1612-13, February 16, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: After a 23-meter drive on Sol 1611, MSL again ended up in an area with many bedrock blocks partly covered by dark sand. We’re planning two sols today to get a head start on planning for the holiday weekend, with the first sol strategically planned to allow the “touch and go” option. But there’s a ridge about 30 meters ahead that we can’t see over, and we would like to be able to drive up onto it on Sol 1612 to allow a drive past it to be planned this weekend. There isn’t enough time before the “decisional” telecommunications opportunity to fit both contact science and a 30-meter drive into the plan, so we had to pick one of these two options. Based on images taken from orbit and by the rover, lots of bedrock is exposed at the crest of the ridge 30 meters away, so we picked the longer drive at the expense of contact science today, hoping that… [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, February 17, 2017. Today’s false color image shows part of the southwestern rim of Knobel Crater. Knobel Crater is located in Terra Cimmeria.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
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Local-scale dust storm activity soldiered on over the northern lowlands and along the Acidalia storm-track this past week on Mars. At the beginning of the week, a dust storm over Xanthe Terra pushed southward over eastern Valles Marineris where it quickly subsided and became a diffuse dust cloud. The dust cloud dispersed further on following sols leaving suspended particles near Argyre and over Noachis Terra. Transient dust storms were also observed over Amazonis, Acidalia, and northern Utopia. Meanwhile, on the other side of the red planet, a tiny dust storm was spotted near the south… [More at link, including video]
This large crescent dune in Kaiser Crater shows the scars of many types of seasonal erosional activities. Along its downwind slope are large gullies which are active during winter, when frost drives dune material downslope, carving out channels and creating fan-shaped aprons.
On the upwind slope (bottom), dust devil tracks are visible: dark lines and curliques created during the spring season by small wind vortices vacuuming up a thin layer of dust and exposing the dark dune sand. [More at link]
Sol 1611, February 15, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: MSL drove almost 27 meters on Sol 1610 to a location with several potential targets, so the planning team spent some time discussing priorities. A dark patch of bedrock, appropriately named “Patch Mountain” was chosen for ChemCam, Right Mastcam, and MAHLI observations. The MAHLI imaging was moved after the ChemCam observation so that the LIBS impact spots would be visible. An additional MAHLI image was added to the standard full suite, to provide a 3-image mosaic from 5 cm. Then the rover will drive again, and take images… [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, February 16, 2017. Today’s false color image shows part of Coprates Chasma.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
