An MSL landmark day. We have reached 1000 sols on Mars. Looking back the remarkable thing is how few serious problems there have been, and when a technical problem has appeared like the focusing laser on ChemCam, a solution has been found. However, there is one issue even Curiosity cant avoid – Conjunction. For much […]
Mars Science Laboratory Blog
21st May 2015 Sol 992
In a first for the mission we have successfully climbed a slope at Mt. Stimson. This is to look at a contact between two types of rock which show a change in environment as coarser material was channeled into the fine muds of the the Pahrump rocks. Having seen the Curiosity ‘scarecrow’ in action at […]
12th May 2015 Sol 983
A stunning image of sunset over the Gale Crater Rim! The sort of long wavelength scattering so characteristic of our Earth’s red sunsets has not occurred. Ehlers et al. 2014 Applied Optics, who studied this strange effect says: ‘Unlike Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is dominated by micron-size dust aerosols, and the sky during sunset […]
8th May 2015 Sol 979
This Mastcam panorama shows our current location at Mt. Shields and our route on to Mt Sharp via Logan’s Pass. We are planning contact science on the outcrops on the lower part of Mt. Shields. As usual there a range of things we can learn from this – the conditions underwhich the sediments interacted with water, […]
27th April 2015 Sol 968
We are situated at Mt. Shields, having driven along Logan’s Run. I am Geo Science team Lead today, and we are preparing a 2 sol plan. This involves determining a series of images and small drives to examine the layers in this coarse-grained rock, which are reminiscent of some of the early Peace Vallis river […]
13th April 2015 Sol 955
We have left Garden City and are commencing a week of driving. This also marks 10 km on the odometer, at up to 100 m a day we can travel quite quickly. This NavCam image shows the general view of the terrain in our route forward to Logan Pass and the waypoints beyond. John
3rd April 2015 Sol 945
The heavy noble gases argon, krypton and xenon are known for their non-reactive nature and on Earth used for many applications where a gas is needed to protect a surface from the reactive species in terrestrial air. Welding under argon atmosphere is one example, and krypton Kr or xenon Xe filled light bulbs for cars […]
25th March 2015 Sol 936
This MAHLI image (field of view about 20 cm) shows how water has travelled through the Garden City mudstone rock. It has left trails in veins – probably of gypsum or a similar mineral. The purity of the veins suggest that they formed from the redissolution of an evaporite sedimentary layer, perhaps above the current […]
15th March 2015 Sol 926
We have started moving off from Pahrump, towards our next main Waypoint at Artist’s Drive. This remarkable site of large sulfate veins is in front of us at Garden City. Such a large concentration suggests that we may be getting closer to a sedimentary layer of evaporite salts, as we progress through the foothills of […]
6th March 2015 Sol 918
We are in the middle of preparing a 3 sol plan, in the final stages of the Pahrump campaign. We have had a short circuit related to the drill mechanism but expect to have the turret and all its instruments back in action in a few sols. Meanwhile SAM has been measuring atmospheric gases unaffected […]
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