Curiosity Rover - Tumblr Posts
Happy birthday, curiosity
Send me to Mars with party supplies before next august 5th
As has I guess become traditional at this point, it's time for another Curiosity Landiversary post where I show you some pictures and ramble a bit. At the time of posting (5:17 UTC on August 6), Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater for 12 Earth years!
Last year when I made this post, it was the dead of winter in Gale. Now we're well into summer, and Curiosity is taking full advantage of the warmth (with such balmy high's as 0°C). This has included spending quite a bit of time at the site of the 41st drill hole, 'Mammoth Lakes,' where it found elemental sulphur! With with old geological technique of 'driving over a rock'.
It's been an exciting spring for space here on Earth between the North American solar eclipse and solar activity creating incredible aurorae, and Mars has been weathering these same solar storms. Curiosity's RAD instrument recorded its highest radiation levels since landing as a result. What's neat is you can also see evidence of this solar radiation in the imagery, as charged particles light up the detectors on Curiosity's cameras.
(There's also some dust lifting in this movie - we're well into the dusty season and Gale Crater has been delivering on the dust front.)
Back in the fall, Curiosity also passed 4000 sols (Martian days) on Mars. This happened right before heading into conjunction, a time of year where Mars is behind the sun and Curiosity gets a bit of a break from talking to its team back on earth. There are still minimal activities that can be preformed though, and one of those was taking this movie showing what a full sol from dawn til dusk looks like in Gale! I may be biased a bit on this one, but it's pretty neat to see.
Happy eighth anniversary, rover Curiosity !
Picture Description: NASA's Curiosity rover took this selfie on Oct. 11, 2019, the 2,553rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission.
The rover drilled twice in this location, nicknamed "Glen Etive" (pronounced "glen EH-tiv"). About 984 feet (300 meters) behind the rover, Vera Rubin Ridge rises up. Behind it lies the floor of Gale Crater, which Curiosity is exploring, and the northern rim of the crater. (Text adapted from nasa.gov)
Credits: NASA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURIOUITY!!!!!!!!
Send me to Mars with party supplies before next august 5th