Tag Archives: Murray Formation

Curiosity update: Recapping the Bagnold Dune investigation

[Ed note: Post by MSL scientist Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, University of New Brunswick] As Curiosity continues on her journey up Mount Sharp (the mound in the centre of Gale crater), rocks we encounter contain evidence for changing environmental conditions. The fine-grained … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Testing, testing…

Sol 2206, October 20, 2018. Curiosity was commanded to take two Navcam frames that largely overlap, perhaps as part of a test. This pair is from the left-side Navcam and is similar to the Sol 2199 image here, except for … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Science is baaaack!

Sol 2204, October 19, 2018, update by MSL scientist Sarah Lamm: Contrary to the “frightening” title, the Curiosity team is excited that science operations are starting to resume! The real fright was when Curiosity had an anomaly on Sol 2172 … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Trio of new images using Side-A

Sol 2199, October 13, 2018. After nearly a month’s hiatus and switching to the Side-A computer, unused since Sol 200, Curiosity took front and rear Hazcam images, plus a Navcam image of the ground in front of the rover.  Click … Continue reading

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Mars VR software wins NASA award

A mixed-reality software that allows scientists and engineers to virtually walk on Mars recently received NASA’s 2018 Software of the Year Award. OnSight uses imagery from NASA’s Curiosity rover to create an immersive 3D terrain model, allowing users to wander … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Geology, it’s like investigating a crime scene

[Ed note: Post by planetary geologist Susanne Schwenzer, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK] Sometimes planetary geology is like forensics. We are presented with a crime scene: Something broke down the original igneous rock, and made all those clays, veins … Continue reading

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Curiosity team confident rover will bounce back from glitch

[From Space.com] It’s still unclear exactly what’s ailing NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, but mission team members are optimistic they can get the six-wheeled robot up and running again. Since last Saturday night (Sept. 15), Curiosity has had trouble beaming home … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Tell us more, we want to help!

Sols 2175-76, September 19, 2018, update by MSL project scientist Ashwin Vasavada: Over the past few days, engineers here at JPL have been working to address an issue on Curiosity that is preventing it from sending much of the science … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Who’d have thought that Ridge rocks could be so hard

Sols 2172-74, September 17, 2018, update by MSL scientist Vivian Sun: Last night we learned that our drill attempt on “Inverness” was not successful, reaching only 4 mm into the rock. Today’s tactical team bounced back from this news and … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Go for drill at Inverness

Sols 2170-71, September 13, 2018, update by MSL scientist Catherine O’Connell: In our previous plan, we assessed the suitability of the Inverness target for drilling. We used APXS to determine if it fell within the required geochemical parameters, first brushing … Continue reading

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