Diamond Member SpaceMan 0 Posted May 22, 2025 Diamond Member Share Posted May 22, 2025 Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Science This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Multimedia This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Mars Missions This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up 2 min read Sol 4546: Martian Jenga This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on May 19, 2025 — Sol 4544, or Martian day 4,544 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 02:23:29 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework Earth planning date: Monday, May 19, 2025 Have you ever played the game Jenga, where you remove one wooden block from a stack, gently place it on another part of the stack, then repeat over and over as you try to keep the stack from toppling over? There are strategies to the game such as what blocks you can afford to remove, and where you can manage to place them without throwing the structure out of balance. That is very much how planning felt today — but instead of wooden blocks, the objects the science team was moving around were science observations in the plan. We had an unusual one-sol plan today so there were very restricted time windows in the plan in which to fit science observations and our next drive. We are driving through an area with criss-crossing fracture sets (which we call boxwork structures) large enough to be seen from orbit. Since they have only recently come within our view, there is no shortage of new observations to make of the fractures as we try to understand the processes that led to their formation. If the fractures were caused by extensive fluid flow through the Martian crust, understanding them would be an important contribution toward tracing the history of Martian water. To fit in all the desired observations — including APXS and MAHLI on a DRT-brushed target, multiple ChemCam RMI and Mastcam mosaics, and a ChemCam LIBS analysis — in addition to environmental monitoring activities and a long drive, the team used every trick in its book to achieve a delicate balancing act of science, time, and power. Some activities were trimmed to fit in smaller time windows, others were moved to less-constrained parts of the plan, and other activities were placed in parallel with each other to take advantage of Curiosity’s ability to multitask. Once our planning Jenga game was over, the team had won — we had a complete and perfectly balanced plan! Who says you cannot teach an old dog (4,546-sols-old) new tricks? Share Details Last Updated May 22, 2025 Related Terms This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Explore More This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Article 2 days ago This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Article 3 days ago This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Article 1 week ago This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up All Mars Resources This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Rover Basics This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Mars Exploration: Science Goals This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up 0 Quote Link to comment https://hopzone.eu/forums/topic/256712-nasa-sol-4546-martian-jenga/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
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