Mars is currently on the other side of the sun and communications with the rovers and orbiters are not possible for a couple more weeks.

So I’m taking this opportunity to share a few of my favourite images acquired during the mission.

This rather scenic path to the 5 kilometer high Martian mountain called Aeolis Mons (aka Mt Sharp) passes the Murray Buttes that are seen here on the right side of this cropped mosaic using just 8 overlapping mast camera images that I assembled using MS ICE.

While at this location the rover drilled into the mudstone bedrock on the surface of the Murray formation and obtained a sample of powdered rock for analysis from a target called ‘Marimba’. The raw images were acquired on mission Sol 1419 (August 03, 2016). Just 2 sols before Curiosity Rover celebrated its 4th anniversary on the planet Mars, landing on August 05, 2012 (PDT) I have stretched the colours and contrast to highlight the terrain on the Buttes and the flanks of the mountain.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

  • tomiant@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    7 days ago

    Oh no I hope they don’t get lonely. Well, at least they have each other.

    In fact, I envy them. I would rather be with them right now.

    • paulhammond5155OPEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      Oh no I hope they don’t get lonely. Well, at least they have each other.

      In fact, I envy them. I would rather be with them right now.

      Sadly they’re over 3,000 km (~1,900 miles) apart, but each could look up into the night sky and see the orbiters circling the planet waiting to relay new instructions to the rovers after conjunction ends in a couple of weeks :)

      • tomiant@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        7 days ago

        Yeah but at least they’re on the same planet. 3000 km isn’t that much when you’re on the same planet. It’s something about trigonometry, don’t ask me, when I asked my teacher what good trig would do me in life when I grew up, before she could answer I told her that regardless I could always have them call her to explain it to them when the need arose.

        You want her number?

        • paulhammond5155OPEnglish
          2·
          7 days ago

          You want her number?

          Agreed 3000 km is only a short distance, especially when you consider the Mars / Earth distance is currently over 360.12 million km

          I recall asking my teacher the same question regarding trigonometry for when I’d need it in real life :) And here I am today LOL

          If I have issues with my Pythagorean theorem formulas in Libreoffice Calc (a2 + b2 = c2), I’ll certainly ask you for her number :)

          ‘Calc’ does a pretty good job of calculating their positions based on their positions reported by JPL after each drive. But I really should update my formulas to include the nominal curvature of the surface of the planet, as that would certainly increase their distance apart :)