Tag Archives: Naukluft Plateau

Curiosity update: Drill troubleshooting

Sol 1462, September 16, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: Unfortunately the Sol 1461 drilling activities did not complete as expected, so the Sol 1462 plan was focused on trying to understand the problem while also doing some remote … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Bright bits in sedimentary rock

Sol 1462, September 16, 2016. With Curiosity parked at the Quela drill target, the ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager shot a three-frame composite (1 MB) focused on a blocky rockfall. The rock’s sedimentary layers include numerous light-toned bits, but these appear to … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Time to drill

Sol 1461, September 14, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: It’s always an exciting day on Mars when you prepare to drill another sample – an engineering feat that we’ve become so accustomed to that I sometimes forget how … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Preparing to drill

Sol 1460, September 13, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Yesterday was sol 2 of the drill campaign at “Quela” and we did a lot of great remote sensing, contact science and wheel imaging (see the above RMI image … Continue reading

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Curiosity: RMI on a layered rockfall

Sol 1459, September 13, 2016. A Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) composite examines a layered rock at Quela, probably fallen off the Murray Butte standing near the rover’s current position. Click the image to enlarge it. Sol 1459 raw images (from all … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Characterizing the Marimba dump pile

Sol 1459, September 12, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Over the weekend, Curiosity completed analyses of the “Marimba” drill sample (our previous drill target), and dumped the post-sieve sample. Today’s plan is focused on MAHLI and APXS of … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Settling in at Quela

Sol 1456-57, September 9, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: We had a successful drive yesterday, and Curiosity is now parked at our next drill site, called “Quela”, right at the base of one of the Murray Buttes. The … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Farewell to the Murray Buttes

The layered geologic past of Mars is revealed in stunning detail in new color images returned by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, which is currently exploring the “Murray Buttes” region of lower Mount Sharp. The new images arguably rival photos taken … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Into the open

Sol 1452, September 6, 2016. The exit “gate” from the Murray Buttes stands behind the rover, as seen by the rear-looking Navcam after Curiosity has driven through. Mt. Sharp appears at the far right end of this composite image. (Click … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Communication challenges

Sol 1450-53, September 2, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Curiosity had a nice ~78 m drive on Sol 1448, which set us up for a lot of great science over the long (4-sol) weekend.  Unfortunately a problem with … Continue reading

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