Jump to content
  • Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...
1 Vote = 0.10€ for server Owner!

[NASA] Sols 4452-4453: Keeping Warm and Keeping Busy

SpaceMan

By SpaceMan,
in World News

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Diamond Member
SpaceMan Hunter

SpaceMan 0

Posted
  • Diamond Member
Posted
Curiosity Navigation

2 min read

Sols 4452-4453: Keeping Warm and Keeping Busy

This is the hidden content, please
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the science targets before it, including “Catalina Island,” the flat rock at image center, using its Left Navigation Camera. The rover captured the image on sol 4450 — or Martian day 4,450 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Feb. 11, 2025, at 13:11:14 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

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 toward winter and it gets colder and colder in Gale Crater, Curiosity has to spend more time warming up to do things like driving and all our good science. I’ve also been watching a couple winter storms that are expected in the next few days here in Toronto. Luckily, Curiosity doesn’t have to deal with snowstorms, and our drive in the last plan went ahead as planned and put us in a good position to go ahead with contact science today, a relief after having to

This is the hidden content, please
. 

The contact science location that the geology team chose is called “Catalina Island,” the flat rock you can see in almost the center of the image above. As you can likely also see above, there’s a whole jumble of rocks in that image, and Mastcam and ChemCam have picked out a couple others to take a look at. These are “Point Dume,” which will be the target of ChemCam’s laser spectrometer, and “Whittier Narrows,” on which Mastcam will image some linear features. Mastcam and ChemCam are also turning their gazes further afield for Mastcam targets “Cleghorn Ridge,” “Cuyamaca Peak,” “Kratka Ridge,” and two long-distance ChemCam mosaics of the top of the Wilkerson butte and a spot a little further down known as “Pothole Trail.”

Much like I’m keeping an eye out the window on the changing weather here, Curiosity is also continuing to keep an eye on the environment in Gale Crater. Even though it’s not the dusty season, we continue to monitor the dust around us and in the atmosphere with a dust-****** survey and a tau. But we’re especially interested in

This is the hidden content, please
, which we’re checking in on with our normal zenith and suprahorizon movies, and our cloud-season-only Phase Function Sky Survey. This is a series of movies covering the whole sky that we can use to determine how sunlight interacts with the individual water-ice crystals in the clouds.

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University

Share

Details

Last Updated
Feb 14, 2025

Related Terms

Explore More

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">
This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">
This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">
This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

This is the hidden content, please


All Mars Resources

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

This is the hidden content, please


Rover Basics

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

This is the hidden content, please


Mars Exploration: Science Goals

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

For verified travel tips and real support, visit: https://hopzone.eu/
0

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Vote for the server

    To vote for this server you must login.

    Jim Carrey Flirting GIF

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.

  I accept