Westward View from Curiosity on Sol 347
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on its mast
to record this westward look on the 347th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's
work on Mars (July 28, 2013). The rover had completed a southwestward drive of
60.1 meters on that sol.
The prominent rock in the right foreground, informally named "East Bull
Rock," is about 20 inches (half a meter) high. The rock-studded local rise
dominating the image is called "Elsie Mountain." A distant portion of the rim of
Gale Crater is visible in the upper portion of the view.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA Curiosity Rover Approaches First Anniversary on Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover will mark one year on Mars next week and has already
achieved its main science goal of revealing ancient Mars could have supported
life. The mobile laboratory also is guiding designs for future planetary
missions.
"Successes of our Curiosity -- that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the
science findings since then -- advance us toward further exploration, including
sending humans to an asteroid and Mars," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
"Wheel tracks now, will lead to boot prints later."
After inspiring millions of people worldwide with its successful landing in a
crater on the Red Planet on Aug. 6, 2012 (Aug. 5, 2012, PDT), Curiosity has
provided more than 190 gigabits of data; returned more than 36,700 full images
and 35,000 thumbnail images; fired more than 75,000 laser shots to investigate
the composition of targets; collected and analyzed sample material from two
rocks; and driven more than one mile (1.6 kilometers).
Curiosity team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,
Calif.,will share remembrances about the dramatic landing night and the mission
overall in an event that will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website
from 10:45 a.m. to noon EDT (7:45 to 9 a.m. PDT) on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
Immediately following that program, from noon to 1:30 p.m., NASA TV will
carry a live public event from NASA Headquarters in Washington. That event will
feature NASA officials and crew members aboard the International Space Station
as they observe the rover anniversary and discuss how its activities and other
robotic projects are helping prepare for a human mission to Mars and an
asteroid. Social media followers may submit questions on Twitter and Google+ in
advance and during the event using the hashtag #askNASA.
Curiosity, which is the size of a car, traveled 764 yards (699 meters) in the
past four weeks since leaving a group of science targets where it worked for
more than six months The rover is making its way to the base of Mount Sharp,
where it will investigate lower layers of a mountain that rises three miles from
the floor of the crater.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its unprecedented sky crane
landing system placed Curiosity on Mars near the base of Mount Sharp. The
mountain has exposed geological layers, including ones identified by Mars
orbiters as originating in a wet environment. The rover landed about one mile
(1.6 kilometers) from the center of that carefully chosen, 12-mile-long (20
kilometers) target area.
Scientists decided first to investigate closer outcrops where the mission
quickly found signs of vigorous ancient stream flow. These were the first
streambed pebble deposits ever examined up close on Mars.
Evidence of a past environment well suited to support microbial life came
within the first eight months of the 23-month primary mission from analysis of
the first sample material ever collected by drilling into a rock on Mars.
"We now know Mars offered favorable conditions for microbial life billions of
years ago," said the mission's project scientist, John Grotzinger of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "It has been gratifying to
succeed, but that has also whetted our appetites to learn more. We hope those
enticing layers at Mount Sharp will preserve a broad diversity of other
environmental conditions that could have affected habitability."
The mission measured natural radiation levels on the trip to Mars and is
monitoring radiation and weather on the surface of Mars, which will be helpful
for designing future human missions to the planet. The Curiosity mission also
found evidence Mars lost most of its original atmosphere through processes that
occurred at the top of the atmosphere. NASA's next mission to Mars, Mars
Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), is being prepared for launch in
November to study those processes in the upper atmosphere.
JPL manages the Curiosity mission and built the rover for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington.
To follow the conversation online about Curiosity's first year on Mars, use
hashtag #1YearOnMars or follow @NASA and @MarsCuriosity on Twitter.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
The events airing on Tuesday also will be carried on Ustream at:
A movie made with Hazard-Avoidance Camera images from Curiosity's first year,
titled "Twelve Months in Two Minutes," is available at:
For more information about the mission, visit:
and
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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