Mammoth Lakes
-
NASA
A Volcanic Medley Near Mammoth Lakes
Take a tour through volcanic history on the edge of the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes, California. Between the tall granite peaks to the west and the Basin and Range province to the east, overlapping volcanic complexes imprint the landscape with a collection of craters, cones, and calderas. The area, still restless today, draws interest from geologists studying Earth’s processes and from planetary scientists…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4255-4256: Just Passing Through
Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 24, 2024 Happy Wednesday, terrestrials! We wrapped up our Mammoth Lakes drill campaign only three weeks ago and are already looking for our next drill site. This will be the last drill campaign in the Gediz Vallis region, an area on Mars the Curiosity team has had their eyes on since sol 0, just under 12 years ago!…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4243-4245: Exploring Stubblefield Canyon
Earth planning date: Friday, July 12, 2024 Curiosity, now heading uphill from the Mammoth Lakes drill site, has focused on a very interesting exposure of conglomerate rocks, consisting of pebbles cemented together by a fine-grained matrix material. On Earth, conglomerate rock is associated with downhill flows of rock and soil mixtures, often in a water-rich environment, so our science team…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4241–4242: We Can’t Go Around It…We’ve Got To Go Through It!
Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 10, 2024 Curiosity is currently trekking across Gediz Vallis channel because, as my nephew’s favorite book says, if we can’t go around it… we’ve got to go through it! Recently we’ve been parked for a while on the channel to drill “Mammoth Lakes,” (https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4222-4224-a-particularly-prickly-power-puzzle/) and are now on the move once again exploring the rubbly…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4239-4240: ‘Vuggin’ Out’
Earth planning date: Monday, July 8, 2024 And just like we planned, Curiosity successfully drove about 11 meters (about 36 feet) after a 27-sol drill campaign at Mammoth Lakes! Not so fast, though, these rocks are just too interesting to leave behind so quickly. Instead of high-tailing it uphill like we usually do after a drill campaign, we’re staying put…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4236-4238: One More Time… for Contact Science at Mammoth Lakes
Earth planning date: Friday, July 5, 2024 Curiosity will drive away from the Mammoth Lakes drill location on the second sol of this three-sol weekend plan, but before she does, the team will take the opportunity for one last chance at contact science in this interesting region of the Gediz Vallis deposit. The team have noticed distinct troughs surrounding many…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4234-4235: And That’s (Nearly) a Wrap on Mammoth Lakes!
Earth Planning Date: Wednesday, July 3, 2024 We received the data from our SAM analysis of the Mammoth Lakes sample late Monday afternoon. After chewing over the results, the team declared we are very happy with all of the analyses we’ve done with this sample, and we are ready to move on to greener pastures… er, redder rocks! This decision…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4216-4218: Another ‘Mammoth’ Plan!
Earth planning date: Friday, June 14, 2024 At the start of this week, we did a preload test on the target “Mammoth Lakes,” the rightmost bright ellipse (DRT ellipse, so less dusty) on the workspace image above. The preload test shows the stability of the rock, making sure it doesn’t move and that it doesn’t look like it will fracture under pressure…
Read More » -
NASA
Sols 4214–4215: The Best Laid Plans…
Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024 Planning today was defined by the decision about whether or not to drill at “Mammoth Lakes,” the potential drill target that we selected on Monday. This decision is made based on the answer to two questions. First, does this location meet our science objectives? On Monday, we undertook some exploratory contact science (primarily…
Read More »