Tag Archives: Curiosity

Curiosity: Getting murky at Gale

Posted on June 18, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2082, June 15, 2018. Curiosity has been commanded to shoot a new selfie using the MAHLI (hand lens imager). Above are three frames from the series, showing the effects of the dust storm as seen in Gale Crater, which … Continue reading →

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Curiosity: MAHLI checks out thin layers on Duluth

Posted on June 15, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2082, June 15, 2018. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) swooped in close to Duluth’s top surface for a good look at its flake-like layers. Above is a two-frame MAHLI composite image, while at right, the Mastcam shows the … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: New MAHLI selfie

Posted on June 15, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2082, June 14, 2018, update by MSL scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The investigation of the Duluth drill hole is going well, and is expected to continue on Sol 2082. First, MAHLI will take a picture of the drill tailings to … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: ‘Just a bunch of dirt’

Posted on June 14, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2081, June 13, 2018, update by MSL scientist Roger Wiens: The final several sols of Curiosity’s drill activities at “Duluth” are devoted mostly to imaging and to analysis of the pile of drill tailings that are dumped on the … Continue reading →

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Four NASA spacecraft tackle dust-storm science

Posted on June 14, 2018 by rburnham

One of the thickest dust storms ever observed on Mars has been spreading for the past week and a half. The storm has caused NASA’s Opportunity rover to suspend science operations, but also offers a window for four other spacecraft … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: Communication back to normal

Posted on June 13, 2018 by rburnham

[NB: This update involves Curiosity, not Opportunity] Sol 2080, June 12, 2018, update by MSL scientist Roger Wiens: On Earth we have multiple means of communication – cell phone, text messages, land line, e-mail, and good old snail mail. On … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Dust storm going global, rover likely in deep-sleep for weeks until skies clear

Posted on June 13, 2018 by rburnham

[Ed. note: Video replay of the briefing here, and a new NASA web page, Mars Storm Watch, here.] NASA scientists reported today that dust in the skies over Opportunity is thicker than ever seen before from the surface, and the … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: Quick change artist

Posted on June 12, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2079, June 11, 2018, update by MSL scientist Michelle Minitti: Over the weekend, an error cropped up during a regular test of the high gain antenna actuators, leaving the antenna unavailable for uplink of today’s plan, but otherwise healthy. … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: Dust on the horizon

Posted on June 10, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2076-78, June 8, 2018, update by MSL scientist Rachel Kronyak: Today we planned a weekend’s worth of activities for Curiosity. For our weekend plan, we have two main priorities: perform another analysis with CheMin on our Duluth drill sample … Continue reading →

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Curiosity update: It’s a SAMple party!

Posted on June 8, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 2075, June 7, 2018, update by MSL scientist Rachel Kronyak: Today, Sol 2075, was a fairly straightforward day of planning, as most of the plan will be devoted to carrying out a methane experiment with our SAM instrument to … Continue reading →

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