Sol 1410, July 24, 2016. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) takes a shot at the scenery to the left of Curiosity from its stowed position on the instrument arm (hence the tilted framing). Below, a Navcam forward-looking composite, with the Murray Buttes on the right and the MAHLI scene visible on the left. Click either image to enlarge it.
Sol 1410 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location.
Little crater on the plains. Beautiful Mars series.
Sols 4442-43, July 23-24, 2016. Following a drive of about 75 feet (23 meters) to the north-northeast, Opportunity’s Navcam shot a 3-frame view looking ahead (above). The low ridge leads downslope from Hinners Point and forms the north wall of Marathon Valley.
On Sol 4442, before the drive, the rover used its Navcam to shoot a 7-frame-wide composite view (below) looking generally south over the rover’s rear deck.Both images enlarge when clicked.
Opportunity raw images, its latest mission status, a location map. and atmospheric opacity, known as tau.
THEMIS Image of the Day, July 25, 2016. Today’s false color image shows part of Bamba Crater located in Xanthe Terra. The THEMIS 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.
Sol 1409-11, July 22, 2016, update from USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: For the weekend plan, we have a bunch more observations of the interesting blocky deposit “Bimbe”. Sol 1409 starts off with a couple of Mastcam images: one of the target “Seeis” and another of the AEGIS target from Sol 1406. Mastcam also has a mosaic to provide more context for the Bimbe blocks. After that, ChemCam has observations of the targets “Seeheim”, “Wilhelmstal”, “Oranjemund”, and “Seeis”. MAHLI then will observe… [More at link]
This region of Xanthe Terra has mostly been contracted due to thrust faulting, but this local region shows evidence of extensional faulting, also called normal faulting.
When two normal faults face each other, they create a bathtub-like depression called a “graben.” [More at link]
Sol 1407, July 21, 2016. The rover’s instrument arm drops from the sky onto a pile of conglomerate rocks at Bimbe, in this (cropped and contrast adjusted) front Hazcam view. Click the image to enlarge it in a new tab.
Below: Rock fragment and rover wheel (by MAHLI).
Sol 1407 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location.
Join us for a Google hangout with ExoMars mission experts for an update on the cruise to Mars, next week’s crucial mid-course manoeuvre and preparations for the arrival phase. The hangout will be live on YouTube on 26 July at 14:00 GMT/16:00 CEST.
Since launch on 14 March, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli landing demonstration module have been en route to the Red Planet.
The hangout will include updates and live Q&A with ESA experts and scientists, focusing on the crucial milestones during the spacecraft’s seven-month cruise to the Red Planet.
The hangout will be hosted by Daniel Scuka (ESA Spacecraft Operations Editor) who will be joined by:
• Michel Denis – ExoMars Flight Director, ESOC
• Silvia Sangiorgi – ExoMars Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager, ESOC
• Michael Khan – Mission Analyst, ESOC
• Ian Thomas – NOMAD spectrometer project manager, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
Post questions using the #askESA hashtag on 26 July – we’ll answer the best ones live in the hangout! [More at link]
Large impact craters rebound from the initial shock, raising deep bedrock to the surface in the central uplift of the crater.
Often this bedrock has greater compositional diversity than the surface layers, because they are from greater depths, older, jumbled, and altered, and very diverse. [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, July 22, 2016. Today’s false color image shows part Ganges 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.
