Category: Blogs

Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Earth planning date: Friday, April 11, 2025 Curiosity is continuing to book it to the potential boxwork structures.  The rover drove over 50 meters on Wednesday, and we plan to drive more than 50 meters again in today’s plan thanks to an unusually good […]

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025 Our drive from Monday’s plan was mostly successful, putting us ~22 meters down the “road” out of an expected 30 meters. A steering command halted the drive a little short when we tried to turn-in-place but […]

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Monday, April 7, 2025 Over the weekend, we completed our drive up the steep side of a canyon, up onto “Devil’s Gate,” a small butte which forms part of the ridge along the top of the canyon and now we can see down into the next […]

Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework Earth planning date: Friday, April 4, 2025 We continue to make progress driving up Mount Sharp, each day gaining new perspectives on the spectacular, towering buttes surrounding our path. To get to the next canyon we can ascend, we have to swing around the north end of […]

Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Wow, sol 4500. What an impressive number of sols (Martian days) exploring the Red Planet! This delightfully even sol number made me wonder where the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity was at this point […]

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University Earth planning date: Monday, March 31, 2025 Planning today began with two pieces of great news. First, our 50-meter drive (about 164 feet) from the weekend plan completed successfully, bringing us oh-so-close to finally driving out of the small canyon that we’ve been traversing through and […]

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Womp, womp. Another SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) issue due to wheels being perched on these massive layered sulfate rocks. With our winter power constraints as tight as they are, though, keeping the arm stowed freed […]

Written by Roger Wiens, Principal Investigator, SuperCam instrument / Co-Investigator, SHERLOC instrument at Purdue University Recently Mars has had a few Earthly visitors. On March 1, NASA’s Europa Clipper flew within 550 miles (884 kilometers) of the Red Planet’s surface on its way out to Jupiter. On March 12, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft […]

Written by Alex Innanen, atmospheric scientist at York University Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 It’s my second shift of the week as the Environmental theme lead and keeper of the plan (a bit of a mouthful we shorten to ESTLK) and today started out feeling eerily similar to Monday. Once again, Curiosity is […]

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center Earth planning date: Monday, March 24, 2025 If you’ve ever seen a geologist in the field, you may have seen a classic stance: one leg propped up on a rock, knee bent, head down looking at the rocks at their feet, and arm pointing […]