2nd July 2014 Sol 678

Here is a new classic image from Mars: a selfie from Kimberley.  You can see the dark drill hole and the practice drill hole beside it.  Curiosity itself is looking a bit dusty after a year’s work on Mars.  Images like this always remind me how big the rover is in relation to many of the outcrops we are looking at.  Keeping track of the scale of rocks is always important.

As a result of all our driving – a total of about 8 km –  we have just passed across our the line of our original 20 km diameter landing ellipse.

Meanwhile at Terra Meridiani – site of the solar powered MER rover Opportunity, which landed in January 2004, has named a site at Endeavour Crater, Pillinger Point.  This is in honour of Colin Pillinger – the lead scientist behind the Beagle2 mission and a man who did much to push forward planetary science in the UK and Europe.