Blogs

Blogs
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.
Posted March 12, 2025
Blogs
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.
Posted March 7, 2025
Blogs
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 […]
Posted March 7, 2025
Blogs
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.
Posted March 5, 2025
Blogs
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.
Posted March 4, 2025
Blogs
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 […]
Posted March 1, 2025
Blogs
Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 The fine detail of the image above reminds us once again that geoscience — on Mars and on Earth — is an observational science. If you look at the image for a few moments, you will see that […]
Posted February 27, 2025
Blogs
Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 24, 2025 Over the weekend Curiosity drove about 48 meters (about 157 feet) to the southwest, continuing to march along on our traverse past Texoli butte and Gould Mesa. I was on shift as the LTP today, and it […]
Posted February 26, 2025
Blogs
Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 21, 2025 Since first encountering the sulfate-bearing unit around Sol 3540, we have detected minerals and elemental concentrations consistent with the presence of various salts and a general drying out of Mars climate (read ”NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Reaches Long-Awaited Salty Region”).
Posted February 26, 2025
Blogs
Over the past week, Perseverance has been parked at a location called “Tablelands,” an area containing the “Serpentine Lake” abrasion patch acquired a few weeks ago. The Mars 2020 team has been diligently analyzing the data from the abrasion patch, and these findings led to the decision to return to Tablelands and attempt a sample […]
Posted February 22, 2025
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