Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center Earth planning date: Monday, June 16, 2025 Over the weekend Curiosity successfully wrapped up activities at the “Altadena” drill site and got back on the road. The approximately 48-meter drive (about 157 feet) was successful, and placed the rover in the next mapping quadrangle […]
Category: Blogs
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4568-4569: A Close Look at the Altadena Drill Hole and Tailings
Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 As we near the end of our Altadena drill campaign, Curiosity continued her exploration of the Martian bedrock within the boxwork structures on Mount Sharp. After successfully delivering a powdered rock sample to […]
Sol 4564: Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam)
Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework Earth planning date: Monday, June 9, 2025 The image above shows the drill poised on the surface of Mars at the start of our attempt to collect sample at “Altadena” over the weekend. Now we know, from subsequent imaging and telemetry, that the drill activity was successful, […]
Sols 4561-4562: Prepping to Drill at Altadena
Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 We are continuing to look for a suitable location to collect a drilled sample in this area. As you may recall from Monday’s plan, we performed a short “bump” of just under 4 meters (about 13 feet) hoping to […]
Sols 4561-4562: Prepping to Drill at Altadena
Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 We are continuing to look for a suitable location to collect a drilled sample in this area. As you may recall from Monday’s plan, we performed a short “bump” of just under 4 meters (about 13 feet) hoping to […]
Searching for Ancient Rocks in the ‘Forlandet’ Flats
Written by Henry Manelski, Ph.D. student at Purdue University This week Perseverance continued its gradual descent into the relatively flat terrain outside of Jezero Crater. In this area, the science team expects to find rocks that could be among the oldest ever observed by the Perseverance rover — and perhaps any rover to have explored […]
Sols 4559-4560: Drill Campaign — Searching for a Boxwork Bedrock Drill Site
Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Monday, June 2, 2025 Now that Curiosity has spent a few sols collecting close-up measurements of the rocks in the outer edge of the boxwork-forming geologic unit, the team has decided that it’s time to collect a drill sample. The […]
Sols 4556-4558: It’s All in a Day’s (box)Work
Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth planning date: Friday, May 30, 2025 When you are scheduled to participate in Science Operations for the rover’s weekend plan, you know it’s going to be a busy morning! Assembling the activities for Friday through Sunday (Sols 4556 through […]
Sols 4554–4555: Let’s Try That One Again…
Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Earth planning date: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 We came in early this morning and learned that part of Tuesday’s plan didn’t execute on Mars due to a temporary issue with the arm. We collected APXS data on the target “Palo Verde Mountains,” but were […]
Sol 4553: Back to the Boxwork!
Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Tuesday, May 27, 2005 We return to planning today after a successful long weekend and about 42 meters of drive distance (about 138 feet). We planned four sols of activities on Friday to keep Curiosity busy, while the U.S.-based science team […]