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November 3, 2012 | 3
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is comfortably ensconced at Rocknest, a patch of sand where the robot has been testing out some of its sample-analysis instruments for the first time. But in the not-too-distant future the rover will be on the move again to more fully explore a region known as Glenelg, which looks to feature a conjunction of multiple terrain types.
Mission planners snapped the photos in the mosaic above, looking out into Glenelg, to help chart a route for exploration. "Those images will help guide us and give the team options in terms of what I'm starting to call 'tours,'" Curiosity project scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology said in an October 18 teleconference. Grotzinger added that such imagery will also help mission scientists select the first rock that the rover will sample using the drill on its robotic arm.
Photographer, writer and chemist Ken Kremer, and photographer and educator Marco Di Lorenzo stitched together the composite photo from dozens of images captured with Curiosity's telephoto camera, the Mastcam 100, while the rover was parked at Rocknest. The segment above, comprising about 27 images, is a detail of a larger mosaic assembled from 75 of the Mastcam 100 photographs.
—John Matson
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3 Comments
Add CommentCuriosity's range is too minimal to likely find other types of deposits. There's a possibiliy but the odds aren't there...no different than if this limited range was on Earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe 'rocks and soil are all variations of the same aeollian deposits. Travelling a few kms is incredible use of technology and hats off to NASA but geologically...? We just didn't land in a good spot.
Considering they already found deposits that don't look aeolian (google Goulburn Scour, which was uncovered by the descent engines before the rover even touched down) and they're heading for the layered central peak of an impact crater, I suspect there will be many surprises in store. Early days yet, GJR. Don't be so pessimistic! The mission scientists seem to think they landed in a great spot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf science writers continue to use jargon like "aeollian" instead of wind-driven and "alluvial plain" instead of "flood plain". We will never get past the anti-science mindset of both the (extreme?) left and right of US society. Trained in physics and then writing unique application programs for jury-rigged connected computer systems for 30+ yrs at IttyBittyMachines I am a pedant who worships language precision, but my family, and friends, constantly castigate me with "You knew what I MEANT, why explain a better way to say it." I still fail to do what I am suggesting in my opening sentence. Mea culpa.
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