Category: Blogs

Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework Earth planning date: Friday, March 14, 2025 The rover successfully arrived at the “Humber Park” outcrop which, on this fine “Pi Day” on Earth, we could convince ourselves looked like a pie with a sandy interior and a rough and rocky crust. We can only hope our […]

Written by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 12, 2025 The days are getting shorter and colder for Curiosity as we head into winter. So our rover is sleeping in a bit before waking up to a busy plan. Today I served as the Engineering Uplink […]

Written by Denise Buckner, student collaborator at University of Florida  Perseverance is hard at work on Mars, overcoming obstacles for scientific exploration! Just a few sols after successfully sealing the challenging Green Gardens core, Perseverance roved on to the Broom Point workspace to collect another sample called Main River. Broom Point is situated a few […]

Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth planning date: Monday, March 10, 2025 The Curiosity rover is winding between the spectacular Gould mesa and Texoli butte through beautifully layered terrain. The end-of-drive target from last week’s plan was a rock with a knobby/bumpy texture that appears […]

Written by Melissa Rice, Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University  This week, the Perseverance team faced a stubborn engineering challenge. After successfully collecting a core called “Green Gardens” from the “Tablelands” location, the rover struggled to seal the sample tube, despite multiple attempts. This isn’t entirely unprecedented — for a previous sample called […]

Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025 The Martian landscape never ceases to amaze me, there is so much variation in texture and color! As a mineralogist, I marvel at them, but my colleagues trained in sedimentology regularly teach me how to see even more […]

Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University Earth planning date: Monday, March 3, 2025 Curiosity continued steady progress through the upper sulfate unit and toward its next major science waypoint: the boxwork structures. Our rover is currently driving south through a local canyon between “Texoli” and “Gould Mesa.” This route may expose the […]

Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 28, 2025 Curiosity continues to climb roughly southward through the layered sulfate strata toward the “boxwork” features. Although the previous plan’s drive successfully advanced the rover roughly 21 meters southward (about 69 feet), the drive had ended with […]

Written by Henry Manelski, Ph.D. student at Purdue University The Perseverance team is always looking for creative ways to use the tools we have on Mars to maximize the science we do. On the arm of the rover sits the SHERLOC instrument, which specializes in detecting organic compounds and is crucial in our search for […]