Sol 4432, July 12, 2016. The rover’s Pancam takes a portrait of Bashful II rock (right). Above, the Pancam is looking southeast over Endeavour Crater’s floor, where the false colors indicate possible composition differences in the surface materials (false-color views by Holger Isenberg). Click images to enlarge them.
Opportunity raw images, its latest mission status, a location map. and atmospheric opacity, known as tau.
Sol 1399, July 12, 2016, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: We’re back in our familiar drive pattern, with a short science block followed by a drive. In today’s pre-drive science block, ChemCam and Mastcam will be used to study the target “Arandis” to document the chemistry of the local bedrock. Then we’ll acquire several Mastcam mosaics to study some blocky deposits and document laminations in the Murray formation. A drive of ~45 m is planned, followed by post-drive imaging for targeting. Curiosity will wake… [More at link]
Dust storm activity over the southern hemisphere intensified soon after Mars’ equinox last week. A number of large local-scale storms developed in Sirenum and Aonia. Other regions along the defrosting seasonal south polar ice cap edge also experienced small short-lived dust storms, including eastern Argyre and western Hellas. Towards the end of the week, a transient dust storm was spotted over Solis Planum. A mix of water-ice clouds and dust storms continued to drift over the northern lowlands. Diffuse… [More at link, including video]
THEMIS Image of the Day, July 13, 2016. The channel in this VIS image is part of Granicus Valles. Granicus Valles is a large region of channels located west of the Elysium volcanic complex. These channels were likely created by the flow of volcanic lava rather than water.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
Sol 1398, July 12, 2016. After the safe-mode hiatus, rover drivers are looking ahead toward relatively smooth, if rolling, terrain to drive over. On the right stand the Murray Buttes. Click image to enlarge it.
Sol 1398 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is resuming full operations today [July 11], following work by engineers to investigate why the rover put itself into a safe standby mode on July 2. The rover team brought Curiosity out of safe mode on July 9.
The most likely cause of entry into safe mode has been determined to be a software mismatch in one mode of how image data are transferred on board. Science activity planning for the rover is avoiding use of that mode, which involves writing images from some cameras’ memories into files on the rover’s main computer. Alternate means are available for handling and transmitting all image data. [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, July 12, 2016. This VIS image shows a small portion of the extensive lava flows of the Tharsis volcanic region. Note that the flows have encircled the two craters, covering the ejecta deposits, but not breaching or over-running the crater rim.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
Sols 4429-30, July 9-10, 2016. Opportunity has beeen busy as it wraps up activities at the head of Marathon Valley.
Above, the Pancam (in Holger Isenberg‘s false-color version) examined the outcrop dubbed Jean-Baptiste La Jeunesse (click to enlarge).
Then the rover drove about 8 meters (25 feet) to the north-northwest to a new target dubbed Bashful II (right). (The naming scheme commemorates rocks identified by the Viking landers in 1976.)
First, Pancam took a stand-off view, then Opportunity approached the rock, and Pancam imaged it from close up (lower right).
Opportunity raw images, its latest mission status, a location map. and atmospheric opacity, known as tau.
