#mars rover curiosity

[netmassimo]

NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity found a Martian rock containing crystals of elemental sulfur, which means it's pure sulfur. In the past, in the same area, the Gediz Vallis channel's area, the presence of sulfur in various compounds was detected but it's the first time that it was detected in its pure form. It's such an anomaly that its discovery was compared to that of an oasis in the desert. A field with stones made of pure sulfur shouldn't exist on Mars, and scientists following Curiosity's exploration of Mount Sharp, at the center of Gale Crater, will have more work to do to explain its formation.

[roversrovers]

Happy Birthday, Curiosity!

Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012 and is "turning" 11 today!

On its first landiversary, engineers on the ground celebrated the occasion by programming Curiosity to "sing" Happy Birthday to itself! A truly once-in-a-lifetime declaration of humans' love for a Mars rover!

And the gestures of love and appreciation for the robot didn't end there! Last year, on Curiosity's 10th landing anniversary, Husqvarna programmed 100.000 of their lawnmower robots to sing Happy Birthday to Curiosity.

Powered by a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), Curosity has been providing us with invaluable information about our red neighbor for 11 years now.

In her time on Mars, Curiosity has been climbing Mount Sharp, taking rock samples, pictures and more to find answers to some of the biggest questions we have about Mars. Most notably, she determined that liquid water and other chemicals necessary for supporting life were present on Mars in the past, and water is still present in the form of ice.

Happy Birthday Curiosity, and congratulations to everyone on Earth without whose tireless work, dedication, passion and imagination none of these achievements would be possible!

[nd-babblinggoblinfromthevoid]

Happy Birthday, Curiosity 🎉🌌

[kiestrokes]

When you and your bestie have different aesthetics 👢x 👟

[lnaliazmcithilien]

NASA's Curiosity rover discovers a surprise in a Martian rock

[deep-space-netwerk]

Ask and you shall receive.

So do y'all know about Curiosity's wheels? They have these cool hole patterns!

The holes are ostensibly for tracking wheel slippage. The pattern is stamped in the Martian sand, and by taking a picture of the tracks and measuring the distance between the repeating hole marks, you can tell how much the wheels are slipping.

But the pattern isn't arbitrary! Curiosity (along with many many other NASA missions) was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - or "JPL". While JPL is entirely federally funded and almost exclusively works on NASA missions, it's technically operated by Caltech, not NASA. When JPL was assembling Curiosity, they added some "JPL" decals to it along with the cool "Curiosity" label on the arm.

Well, NASA HQ found out and got mad. "You can't put those JPL stickers all over our rover!" they said, and made JPL scrape them all off.

JPL reluctantly complied, but definitely got the last laugh. No decals allowed? Well fine - the holes in Curiosity's wheels say "JPL" in Morse code. So every few feet, the name of the real creator of the rover is stamped into the surface of Mars!

[imaginariumgeographica]

At the time of posting (5:17 UTC) Curiosity has been on Mars for 11 Earth years!

There's a post claiming that Curiosity sings itself happy birthday each year - it did it's first year, but it hasn't since. Power is an in-demand resource, especially this year when we're in the dead of winter with an aging battery and still trying to pack in science as we climb Mount Sharp!

This past earth year has been a great one for the decade-old rover. We crossed into the sulfate region, which contains more "salty" minerals which probably formed later in Mars' history when the planet was transitioning from its wet past to its dry present.

Despite this we still saw evidence of past water, which we thought we'd left behind lower down the mountain!

We're not just looking down with our robot geologist - the present climate is a treasure trove. It's the middle of the cloudy season on Mars, and earlier this year Curiosity saw some stunning twilight clouds lit by the just-set sun. This included seeing crepuscular rays for the first time on Mars, and a stunning, feather-like cloud.

Curiosity has faced challenging terrain from the hard rocks of the marker band to the slippy slidy ridge it navigated quite recently, but 11 years after landing it's still going strong with a team back on earth helping it navigate the challenges it faces.

Happy Earth birthday, Curiosity 🥳

[blueiscoool]

New NASA images reveal giant hole in Curiosity rover's wheel after 12 years of 'abuse' on Mars

Images captured by Curiosity's onboard cameras show several large tears in the tire of one of the rover's wheels. However, the damage does not appear to be slowing the roaming robot down.

Curiosity first touched down on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012 and was initially only expected to last for two years. But the hardy rover has defied expectations and has lasted 4,323 Martian days, or Sols, on the Red Planet, traveling more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) around the Gale Crater, where it originally landed.

However, new photos taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and released by NASA on Sept. 24 reveal that the rover's epic journey has taken a toll on the robot's middle right wheel. The images show several large tears in the wheel's heavily scratched tire, including one particularly large hole that reveals the wheel’s inner mechanisms. It is currently unclear when these holes first emerged or if any of the rover's other wheels have suffered similar damage.

The damage may look bad but Curiosity "is still holding up well despite taking some of the worst abuse from Mars," mission operations engineer Ashley Stroupe wrote in the statement.

By Harry Baker.

[cosmonautroger]

Mars Planet by Curiosity Rover, 2024

[theofficialastronomy101]

A 1500 Kilometer long lonely clouds spotted on Mars.

[netmassimo]

Il Mars Rover Curiosity della NASA ha trovato una roccia marziana contenente cristalli di zolfo elementare, che significa che si tratta di zolfo puro. In passato nella stessa area, quella del canale della Gediz Vallis, aveva rilevato la presenza di zolfo in vari composti ma è la prima volta che viene rilevato in forma pura. Si tratta di un'anomalia al punto che la sua scoperta è stata paragonata a quella di un'oasi nel deserto. Un campo con pietre fatte di puro zolfo non dovrebbe esistere su Marte e gli scienziati che seguono l'esplorazione del Monte Sharp, al centro del Cratere Gale, da parte di Curiosity avranno altro lavoro per spiegarne la formazione.

[roversrovers]

I'm fine, I just got the clearest image of sun rays on Mars, captured during a sunset in my eye 😭

(x)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[martian-clouds]

This Zenith Movie was taken on Sol 1222 (2016-01-13) at approximately 9:52 LTST and a solar longitude of 94.64°. (What is this?)

[swdefcult]

martian sunset by the curiosity rover

[whereserpentswalk]

I don't have a logical reason for it but the quotes "Tell the emperor that my hall has fallen. Apollo no longer has his house, nor his mantic bay, nor his prophetic spring; the water has gone quite." And "My battery is low and it's getting dark" have the same energy to them. Perhaps on occasion, the machine and divine can speak the same poetry.