Blogs

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
Blogs
Earth planning date: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 During today’s unusual-for-MSL Tuesday planning day (because of the U.S. holiday on Monday), we planned activities under new winter heating constraints.
Posted February 21, 2025
Blogs
Perseverance’s drives over the last few weeks have doubled back several times. Why such an unconventional route? Team scientists have been delighted to find new kinds of rocks that could be the oldest ever found on Mars and are eager to collect samples. Perseverance embarked on the Crater Rim Campaign in search of ancient uplifted […]
Posted February 17, 2025
Blogs
Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 14, 2025 Curiosity is continuing to make progress along the strategic route, traversing laterally across the sulfate (salt) bearing unit toward the boxwork structures.
Posted February 17, 2025
Blogs
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025 I woke up this morning to my weather app telling me it felt like minus 15° C (5°F) outside. On days like this, it can take me a little longer to get myself up and out into the world. Curiosity has a similar problem — as we head […]
Posted February 14, 2025
Blogs
Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 10, 2025 Last Saturday around 20:00 Pacific Standard Time I saw a 22-degree halo encircling our mostly-full Moon and Mars; an entire planet hanging in the sky between our Moon and the atmospheric phenomenon. As I took in the view I wondered what our rover was doing at that moment… […]
Posted February 12, 2025
Blogs
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 Overnight before planning today, Mars reached a solar longitude of 40 degrees. The solar longitude is how we like to measure where we are in a Mars year. Each year starts at 0 degrees and advances to 360 degrees at the end of the year. For those of […]
Posted February 7, 2025
Blogs
Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 Another successful weekend plan left us about 23 meters (about 75 feet) farther down our Mount Sharp Ascent Route (MSAR), with all our science data downlinked to Earth and the planet clocks aligned once more. We only have until 18:26 Pacific time to get this Monday’s plan uplinked […]
Posted February 6, 2025
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