“But why go to all this trouble?”
Didn’t Mallory already answer questions like this back in 1923?
The Planetary Society Dust storm
The dust storm on Mars is a global weather event.
“The last dust storm on Mars to go global occurred in 2007, five years before the Curiosity rover landed at its Gale Crater site, according to officials with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.”
Info on NASA’s InSight Lander
“As early as May 5, 2018, NASA is set to launch Mars InSight, the very first mission to study the deep interior of Mars. We’ve been roaming the surface of Mars for a while now, but when InSight lands on Nov. 26, 2018, we’re going in.”
NASA Solar System Exploration What’s a sol?
A Martian day is 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than an Earth day. To distinguish the two, we use the term “sol” when referring to a Martian day.
Landers we have sent to Mars use special 24 hour clocks with longer seconds than those of Earth, so that a sol is divided into 24 periods, just like on Earth. The operations teams for these landers work and live by the same clocks. This means, for people working on these crews, their schedule shifts 40 minutes later each day. This makes for interesting problems.
Smithsonian Magazine Curiosity at 2000 Sols
Curiosity is at 2000 sols and still going.
(Note the comment regarding sky color)
Looks like we made it: 2,000 sols on Mars, you guys! I’m looking back on 2,000 Martian days of exploration, and…
Posted by NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover on Thursday, March 22, 2018
Rock Climbing on Mars
Climbing Gale Crater Panorama
JPL posted a nifty panorama from Curiosity today.
There’s also a video description at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5nrrnAukwI.
(Regarding the color of the sky, note the comment at the end of the video: “To aid geologists, colors in the image are white balanced so rocks appear the same color as the same rocks would on Earth.”)
Curiosity Panorama
Nifty panorama, particularly on a handheld device
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