Three billion years ago, amid one of the last wet periods on Mars, powerful debris flows carried mud and boulders down the side of a hulking mountain. Now, after three attempts, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached the ridge, capturing the formation in a 360-degree panoramic mosaic.
#Curiosity continues its time travel into Greek antiquity examining targets with names like Antikythera, Delphi, Mycenae and Zagori. It'll pay special attention to dusting off the Antikythera mechanism, er, I mean bedrock, before exiting the Greek quad and entering the Bishop quad (California), where new rock names will be taken from.
The rover continues its adventures in Greek name territory, encountering features called Hydra, Dodoni, Thassos, Rouskio, Antiparos, and Milos. Four of them are named after Greek islands in the Aegean.
Want to know how to operate a rover on another planet? #Curiosity team's reports are the best available resource for that, explaining both plans and their execution.
And all that while learning new rock/place names, currently originating from Greece, like Ολυμπία, Αρτεμίσιο, and Παλαιοχώρι.
From Σκιάθος and Σκόπελος and the Greek Σποράδες to the Bermuda Triangle, #Curiosity appears to have flashbacks of summer vacations on Earth 😀 . A 360° panorama is currently being captured, and it should be spectacular!
#Curiosity continues onward to Gediz Vallis Ridge, and there will be no shortage of fantastic targets to study along the way, in spite of them having names that are all Greek to it: Καμενιάνοι, Αίγινα, Ελευθερούπολη, Άνω Ποταμιά, Καλάβρυτα 😀
"We are so close, we can almost taste it. In fact, one of our geologists decided they could almost smell the ridge from today’s workspace – it smells like geological “bliss” in case you are wondering!"
Still driving in territory with features bearing Greek names, like Μέτσοβο, Σπήλαιο Ψυχρού, Σύρος, Φοίνικας, the rover is heading toward the Gediz Vallis ridge.
"#Curiosity is behaving much as you would as you climb a mountain. You pause occasionally to look around at what lies beneath your boots - the reward for your hard work up to that point. You also take time to enjoy the view and turn your gaze uphill to the path ahead - the unknown enticing you forward."
The rover continues its adventure in this patch of Gale Crater with Greek names like Ντουρντουβάνα, Αγρίδι, etc, toward Kukenan butte.
#Curiosity continues its steady winter drive through the Καλάβρυτα quadrangle, with its wheels leaving Morse code patterns on the sand. No, no, the Morse code doesn't say SOS, it says JPL 😜
Having examined the intriguing Σκεπαστό and the nearby Ανάσταση, it's now approaching its next target, the much larger Gediz Vallis system.
“This is the first tangible evidence we’ve seen that the ancient climate of Mars had such regular, Earth-like wet-dry cycles,” Rapin said. “But even more important is that wet-dry cycles are helpful – maybe even required – for the molecular evolution that could lead to life.”
William Rapin of France’s Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie.
"I certainly do not remember a birthday cake with eleven candles in front of me. I'm sure it existed, and there's probably even a (physical) photo of it somewhere at my childhood home, but there have been many laps around the sun since then to erode my memories from that time (and, naturally, a significant change in hair albedo if I am completely honest)"
Congrats to Curiosity and her entire team who are celebrating the 11th ladiversary today! 🥳
I used the occasion to reprocess the first of many amazing rover selfies which was taken on Sol 84.
To celebrate its 11th 'landiversary' the veteran rover will be looking for some frost for its rocky cake in places with Greek names: Σοποτό, Κιάτο, Κόλπος Μεγάρων, Μαμούσια. If you think this is all made up, it's not.
Read the exemplary, as usual, status report by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
While still waiting for news re: #Ingenuity, here is how team #Curiosity does it:
"Earth planning date:
Monday, Jul 31, 2023
It's currently wintertime at Gale Crater and temperatures are cold this time of the year. Power is therefore more limited for Curiosity, so science activities and drives are more constrained as we head into planning this week. The ChemCam frost experiment from the previous plan did not execute as hoped due to an issue [...]" https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/9451/sol-3905-roving-in-a-winter-wonderland/