APXS
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4947-4953: Gale Crater Then and Now
Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University, Toronto Earth planning date: Friday, July 10, 2026 Curiosity had a successful long weekend and came into this week ready to explore some more. We’ve been moving fairly rapidly through different mapped “units,” or distinct geological areas of interest, visiting a different one at each of our three stops this week.…
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sol 4588: Ridges and troughs
Written by Lucy Thompson, APXS Collaborator and Senior Research Scientist at the University of New Brunswick, CanadaEarth planning date: Wednesday, July 2, 2025As we traverse the boxwork terrain, we are encountering a series of more resistant ridges/bedrock patches, and areas that are more rubbly and tend to form lower relief polygonal or trough-like features. We came into planning this morning…
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4580-4581: Something in the Air…
Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University in St. Louis Earth planning date: Monday, June 23, 2025 Curiosity was back at work on Monday, with a full slate of activities planned. While summer has officially arrived for much of Curiosity’s team back on Earth, Mars’ eldest active rover is recently through the depths of southern Mars winter and…
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4575-4576: Perfect Parking Spot
Written by Lucy Thompson, APXS Collaborator and Senior Research Scientist at the University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025 Not only did our drive execute perfectly, Curiosity ended up in one of the safest, most stable parking spots of the whole mission. We often come into the start of planning hoping that all the wheels are…
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NASA
Sols 4529-4531: Honeycombs and Waffles… on Mars!
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Friday, May 2, 2025 From our Wednesday stopping spot, the drive direction ahead (looking along the path we would follow in the Wednesday drive) appeared to be full of rough, gnarly material, which can be tricky targets for contact science instruments like APXS. However, coming into…
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NASA
Sols 4527-4528: ‘Boxwork Ahoy!’
Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 We’re back in our standard “touch and go” plan regime today, where we sandwich a midday remote science block between morning-APXS and afternoon-MAHLI contact science arm blocks. We had our first late-slide 9 a.m. PDT start in quite a while due…
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NASA
Sols 4515-4517: Silver Linings
Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Friday, April 18, 2025 As the APXS operations person today, I was hopeful that we could plan a compositional measurement after brushing one of the bedrock blocks in front of the rover. However, it soon became clear that the rover was not on stable enough ground to safely…
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NASA
Sols 4505-4506: Up, up and onto the Devil’s Gate
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Monday, April 7, 2025 Over the weekend, we completed our drive up the steep side of a canyon, up onto “Devil’s Gate,” a small butte which forms part of the ridge along the top of the canyon and now we can see down into the next canyon. It is always true that…
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NASA
Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate
Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework Earth planning date: Friday, April 4, 2025 We continue to make progress driving up Mount Sharp, each day gaining new perspectives on the spectacular, towering buttes surrounding our path. To get to the next canyon we can ascend, we have to swing around the north end of a small ridgeline, “Devil’s Gate,”…
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NASA
Sols 4439-4440: A Lunar New Year on Mars
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 We’re planning sols 4439 and 4440 on the first day of the Lunar New Year here on Earth, and I’m the Geology/Mineralogy Science Theme Lead for today. The new year is a time for all kinds of abundance and good luck, and we are certainly lucky to be celebrating another new year on…
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