Astrogeology Science Center

I was on shift as SOWG Chair today, and it was a fun and a straightforward day of planning!

Curiosity is continuing to make her way around ‘Mont Mercou’ to capture as many angles as possible of the 7-m-tall sedimentary outcrop.

Curiosity is still parked in front of the magnificent Mont Mercou cliff face as we continue to work through analyses of the Nontron drill site.  Over the weekend Curiosity dropped off more samples to SAM, and today we’re planning an additional SAM EGA analysis in addition to other remote sensing activities.

New discoveries and data analyses are only part of the science process. Once a scientist has their results and conclusions, they must share their science with other scientists and with the public, and one venue for this is the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). Despite the global pandemic, LPSC will convene for its 52^nd year,  albeit virtually on March 15-19, 2021...

Curiosity is ready to go ahead with the first drill of 2021!

In planning today, the team decided to drive to a drill location closer to the cliff face of Mont Mercou. Before we do that, Mastcam will take a stereo mosaic of the drill site (the flat patch of bright outcrop visible in this Navcam image) as well as a larger stereo mosaic of the cliff face to get a high-resolution look at the layers exposed there.

This two-sol plan includes arm, remote sensing and mobility activities on Sol 3047 and more remote sensing on Sol 3048. 

The Sol 3044 drive brought MSL to an area (pictured below) mostly covered by dark sand, with very few exposed rocks in the arm workspace.  So, one of the first things I did this morning as MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead was to search for good locations for contact science.

On February 18, 2021, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will land in Jezero crater and begin its search for signs of previous life on Mars. You can help the Perseverance rover explore its new home with the Jezero crater coloring activity!

The excitement of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars can be witnessed on NASA TV starting at 11:15 PST on February 18, 2021.

Mars 2020 Staff Highlights