Curiosity Rover Updates

These updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public. Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Black and white image of Mars at the Gediz Vallis channel.

Sols 4280-4281: Last Call at Kings Canyon

2 min read

Earth planning date: Monday, Aug. 19, 2024 Curiosity successfully completed the drill sequence at the Kings Canyon site within the Gediz Vallis channel. Today was a smooth planning day as we decided to stay put for sols 4280 and 4281 to obtain…

Article2 days ago

Left navigation camera image from Sol 4255, showing “Milestone Peak” on the left, the subject of an RMI in this plan

Sols 4277-4279: Getting Ready To Say Goodbye to the King!

4 min read

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 16, 2024 It’s time to move on from our “Kings Canyon” drill site, so today’s plan focused on our usual tidy up routine after a drill campaign. First we need to dump out any material…

Article3 days ago

A grayscale photograph of the Martian surface shows rough, rocky terrain in the foreground and rolling hills and smooth dunes in the background.

Sols 4275-4276: A Familiar View

2 min read

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024 The star of today’s plan is SAM’s GCMS, which continues our analysis of the “Kings Canyon” drill sample. As Natalie mentioned, this is a relatively energy-hungry activity, but luckily our last plan left…

Article1 week ago

A close-up, overhead photo of a part of the Curiosity rover shows an enclosure that looks like a backwards “C.” Inside that is a circular, silver metal opening that looks like the wall of a springform cake pan, and inside that is a round opening that looks like a metal duct pipe, the inside of which is dark and you can’t see the bottom. The metal parts appear shiny and clean, but everything else in the image appears covered in brownish-orange dust.

Sols 4273-4274: Prep Rally

2 min read

Earth planning date: Monday, Aug. 12, 2024 The SAM EGA over the weekend was successful, and that means we’re well on our way to planning the GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry) on our “Kings Canyon” drill sample! GCMS is an…

Article1 week ago

A close-up image of Martian surface terrain, showing areas of soil in orange-tan, pale orange, and brown.

Sols 4270-4272: Sample for SAM

2 min read

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 9, 2024 The focus for this three-sol weekend plan is delivering a portion of the Kings Canyon drill sample to SAM for Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA), following on from a successful CheMin analysis. The CheMin…

Article1 week ago

A photograph of a patch of gritty ground, mostly packed flat with scattered tiny sharp rocks and a few small ridges. In the center of the image, a shallow hole has been bored into the ground, and a pile of the excavated soil forms a mound around the hole.

Sols 4268-4269: Admiring Kings Canyon

2 min read

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024 Curiosity is admiring our latest drill hole, “Kings Canyon.” Today’s plan is dedicated to continuing analysis of the drilled sample, including preconditioning for SAM evolved gas analysis (EGA) scheduled for the weekend. In…

Article1 week ago

A close-up, overhead photo of a part of the Curiosity rover shows an open enclosure that looks like a backwards “C.” Inside that is a flat piece that looks like a ping-pong paddle, upon which is a small pile of orange soil and small rocks. Everything in the image appears covered in brownish-orange dust.

Sols 4266-4267: Happy ‘Landiversary,’ Curiosity

3 min read

Earth planning date: Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 After the usual morning routine of doing some engineering housekeeping, Curiosity continues to take some remote science observations. We take a ChemCam LIBS observation and a Mastcam image of the “Peeler Lake” target,…

Article2 weeks ago

Sols 4263-4265: A Royal Birthday Celebration at Kings Canyon

3 min read

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 2, 2024 Prepare your party poppers, horns, and confetti! On Aug. 6 (EDT), after 4,265 Martian sols since Curiosity first landed in Gale Crater, the rover will be turning 12 years old. I still remember…

Article2 weeks ago

A grayscale panorama of the Martian surface showing terrain covered in many small rocks in the foreground. The middle ground consists of smooth dunes, curving from a low point in the center of the image, upward toward the left and right edges of the frame. In the background, another hill at center, with uneven ground that looks like the top of a frosted chocolate cake.

Sols 4261-4262: Drill Sol 1…Take 2

2 min read

Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 31, 2024 As Cat mentioned on Monday, today’s plan is a second attempt at our Drill Sol 1 activities. We’ve shifted the target on Kings Canyon a little bit, but the activities remain the same…

Article3 weeks ago

MAHLI image of the brushed “Kings Canyon” target

Sols 4259-4260: Kings Canyon Go Again!

3 min read

Earth planning date: Monday, July 29, 2024 Our weekend drill preload test on the target “Kings Canyon” (shown in the accompanying MAHLI image) didn’t give us the full range of data we need to move forward with the full drilling process.…

Article3 weeks ago