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Related: About this forumCuriosity rover surveys a mystery under dusty Martian skies
Date:
September 7, 2018
Source:
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
This 360-degree panorama was taken on Aug. 9 by NASA's Curiosity rover at its location on Vera Rubin Ridge.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
After snagging a new rock sample on Aug. 9, NASA's Curiosity rover surveyed its surroundings on Mars, producing a 360-degree panorama of its current location on Vera Rubin Ridge.
The panorama includes umber skies, darkened by a fading global dust storm. It also includes a rare view by the Mast Camera of the rover itself, revealing a thin layer of dust on Curiosity's deck. In the foreground is the rover's most recent drill target, named "Stoer" after a town in Scotland near where important discoveries about early life on Earth were made in lakebed sediments.
The new drill sample delighted Curiosity's science team, because the rover's last two drill attempts were thwarted by unexpectedly hard rocks. Curiosity started using a new drill method earlier this year to work around a mechanical problem. Testing has shown it to be as effective at drilling rocks as the old method, suggesting the hard rocks would have posed a problem no matter which method was used.
There's no way for Curiosity to determine exactly how hard a rock will be before drilling it, so for this most recent drilling activity, the rover team made an educated guess. An extensive ledge on the ridge was thought to include harder rock, able to stand despite wind erosion; a spot below the ledge was thought more likely to have softer, erodible rocks. That strategy seems to have panned out, but questions still abound as to why Vera Rubin Ridge exists in the first place.
More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180907175633.htm
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Curiosity rover surveys a mystery under dusty Martian skies (Original Post)
Judi Lynn
Sep 2018
OP
Judi Lynn
(160,630 posts)1. NASA's Curiosity Rover Takes a Stunning Selfie Under Dusty Martian Skies
George Dvorsky
Yesterday 1:55pm
A new 360-degree panorama captured by the Curiosity Rover is one of its best yet.
The photos used to create this mosaic were taken by Curiosity on August 9, 2018, at Vera Rubin Ridge, where the intrepid rover has been working over the past several months. The image shows the Red Planets iconic butterscotch-colored sky, though its a bit darker than usual owing to a dissipating global dust storm.
Curiositys counterpart, the Opportunity rover, is currently on the other side of the planet where the storm was much worse. NASA had to put Opportunity into hibernation mode as the dust storm made it too dark for the rovers solar panels to collect energy. Its not known whenor even ifOpportunity will return to active duty.
Anyhoo, Curiosity doesnt seem to have been affected by the storm, but as the new panorama shows, a fair amount of dust has collected atop its surface. The rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and its been steadily collecting dust ever since, with no one around to sweep it off.
More:
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-s-curiosity-rover-takes-a-stunning-selfie-under-du-1828887498
byronius
(7,401 posts)2. This post made my heart rate rise. Does that mean I'm a nerd?
Uhh, yup.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)3. There is no shame in nerd-dom, byronius.
Wounded Bear
(58,713 posts)4. It's amazing this guy is still going...
Good job NASA!