Astrogeology Science Center

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. –  Have you ever wondered what kind of rocks make up those bright and dark splotches on the moon? Well, the USGS has just released a new authoritative map to help explain the 4.5-billion-year-old history of our nearest neighbor in space.

The USGS was involved very early in the Apollo program. NASA and the U.S. Geological survey were working together in the field training program for astronauts.

Bringing mysteries of the Martian Cave to life to aid human exploration.

In the weekend plan the remainder of the “Edinburgh” drill sample was dumped, which means that we are almost finished with activities in this drill location. This two-sol plan is filled with activities to characterize the dump pile and drill hole as well as remote sensing observations.

Curiosity is still at the Edinburgh drill site as part of a mini campaign to sample the Greenheugh pediment.  We’re finishing drill-related analyses and activities, and the three-sol weekend plan is focused on dumping sample from the drill bit assembly and documenting the dump pile and drill tailings.

The priority for the sol 2720 plan is to drop off and analyze a sample of the Edinburgh drill hole in SAM, but we’ve got plenty of remote sensing in the plan too, much of it building on our previous observations from this spot. We start each morning with a Navcam dust devil survey.

We were looking forward to seeing you visit the Astrogeology Science Center, but as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, we are closed to the public until further notice.

Our recently published image and topographic maps of Mercury (USGS SIM 3404) have been re-printed due to high demand! These maps were based on data products from the MESSENGER mission, the first mission to study the entire planet.

During the acquisition of the MAHLI images on Sol 2705, an arm issue prevented the sequence from completing.  But enough images were successfully acquired that it's not necessary to repeat the MAHLI sequence, and the arm fault is well understood so that no special recovery activities were required. 

The Sol 2700 drive went well, setting the rover up for contact and remote science on exposures of the pediment-capping bedrock.  Before the arm is deployed on Sol 2701, ChemCam will measure the elemental chemistry of the sides of a couple bedrock slabs dubbed "Strath Halladale" and "Glen Tanar."  

A short drive was planned in the previous sol to place Curiosity just below the top of the pediment. The drive went extremely well, and the workspace available for tosol’s plan is beautiful and full of tantalizing outcrops.