Category: Blogs

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 23, 2025 For today’s planning, we were in the same workspace as the Monday plan — on purpose! We don’t often have a plan without a drive but in order to allow the battery to recover from some power-hungry […]

Written by Melissa Rice, Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University Following a short break for the July 4th holiday, Perseverance drove westward to a site called “Westport,” where the clay-bearing “Krokodillen” unit meets an olivine-bearing rock formation. It is possible that the olivine-rich rocks are an intrusive igneous unit, meaning they could have […]

Written by Deborah Padgett, MSL OPGS Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory  Earth planning date: Monday, July 21, 2025 Curiosity continues our exploration of the fractured boxwork terrain on the slopes of Mount Sharp. After a successful 5-meter drive (about 16 feet), our rover is resting in a hollow on its way to a […]

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center Earth planning date: Friday, July 18, 2025 Curiosity has started to investigate the main exposure of the boxwork structures! What was once a distant target is now on our doorstep, and Curiosity is beginning to explore the ridges and hollows that make up this […]

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center Earth planning date: Friday, July 18, 2025 Curiosity has started to investigate the main exposure of the boxwork structures! What was once a distant target is now on our doorstep, and Curiosity is beginning to explore the ridges and hollows that make up this […]

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 As we hoped, we successfully climbed the 11-meter ramp (about 36 feet) and have arrived at the top of the ridge and the start of the main boxwork region. This means we’re moving into the next phase of the […]

Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth planning date: Monday, July 14, 2025 The Curiosity rover continues to navigate through the region of Mount Sharp characterized by the boxwork terrain.  After successfully completing a drive of about 34 meters over the weekend (about 112 feet), the […]

Written by Michelle Minitti, MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator, Framework Earth planning date: Friday, July 11, 2025 Imagine this vista as the view out your office window to start your workday. Your natural tendency would be to grab your camera and photograph as much of the view as possible. Curiosity was lucky enough to find herself […]

Written by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 9, 2025 In today’s plan, we have a little bit of everything. With it being winter still, we are taking advantage of the ability to let the rover sleep in, doing most of the activities in the afternoon […]

Written by Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Monday, July 7, 2025 A few planning sols ago, we spotted a small ridge in the landscape ahead of us. Ridges and structures that are prominently raised above the landscape are our main target along this part of […]