I am starting a new thread for the climb into the hills and valleys of the sulfate unit. I had naively anticipated knowing when a sharp compositional boundary would be crossed, but more likely it will be gradual and the crossing point arbitrary. So the odometer clicking up to 3200 seems like a reasonable place to start a new section. There will be no shortage of amazing views to greet us as we rove on, singing 'sulfates on the soles of our shoes' perhaps.
Start posting here on sol 3200!
Phil
Full Version: Roving into the Sulfate Hills
QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Aug 5 2021, 08:24 AM) 
I am starting a new thread for the climb into the hills and valleys of the sulfate unit. I had naively anticipated knowing when a sharp compositional boundary would be crossed, but more likely it will be gradual and the crossing point arbitrary. So the odometer clicking up to 3200 seems like a reasonable place to start a new section. There will be no shortage of amazing views to greet us as we rove on, singing 'sulfates on the soles of our shoes' perhaps.
Start posting here on sol 3200!
Phil
Start posting here on sol 3200!
Phil
What a nice idea! Thanks a lot Phil
The rugged terrain Curiosity has reached is arguably the most spectacular landscape ever visited by a Mars rover and I cannot wait for the pictures we are going to get. It'll be a fitting place for Curiosity to spend her final years <3. Can anyone point me to a rough traverse path of where the rover will be headed over the next year or two? I hope we get to return to the pediment soon, the view from up there of the rover's 8-year journey will be amazing I'm sure.
Version 10 of the 'Mount Sharp Ascent Route' (MSAR) is the latest version that I am aware of.
It was documented in an abstract from the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The abstract has several figures that show the path and describe some of the candidate science waypoints along the path.
Spoiler alert: They do plan to revisit the Pediment LINK
It was documented in an abstract from the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The abstract has several figures that show the path and describe some of the candidate science waypoints along the path.
Spoiler alert: They do plan to revisit the Pediment
LINKQUOTE (Saturns Moon Titan @ Aug 5 2021, 08:02 PM)
...Can anyone point me to a rough traverse path of where the rover will be headed over the next year or two? I hope we get to return to the pediment soon...
QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Aug 5 2021, 01:24 AM)
I am starting a new thread for the climb into the hills and valleys of the sulfate unit. I had naively anticipated knowing when a sharp compositional boundary would be crossed, but...
Phil
Phil
Likely with all the float moving downslope we won't see a sharp boundary. We can keep looking for undisturbed outcrops not at the head of talus slopes and close enough to zap with the Chemcam.
Astounding journey...
--Bill
May as well kick off this thread properly with this majestic view from one of the NavCam during sol 3200
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Incredible! The atmosphere has really cleared up. A few months ago you could hardly see the hills.
Phil
Phil
Sol 3202 Rmastcam:
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Interesting color contrast between the cap and the lower layers.
Click to view attachment
And we have almost arrived at the pediment already! The resistant capstone at the top of the cliff in front of us is indeed the Greenheugh pediment I have overlaid the MSAR_10 route (the most recent strategic route) to show roughly where the team probably intends to ascend up onto the pediment. From the looks of the planned traverse, the rover will follow this cliff uphill, squeezing through a narrow passage and then ascending a ramp. However, before all that I expect they'll want to drill nearby to where we are now, to document the chemistry of the rocks directly underneath the pediment. Once we're ontop, the view will be very special. Looks like they plan on sending the rover towards that big ridge that runs down the middle of it - my understanding is that there's debate over whether the Greenheugh pediment represents just aeolian sandstones, basically a lateral continuation of the stimson formation (remember the buttes all those years ago?), alternatively it might be an alluvial fan. It certainly resembles a fan in shape and that big ridge running down the middle could be an inverted channel. This is why the mission geologists want to send the rover there, to check which theory's true!
And we have almost arrived at the pediment already! The resistant capstone at the top of the cliff in front of us is indeed the Greenheugh pediment
I have overlaid the MSAR_10 route (the most recent strategic route) to show roughly where the team probably intends to ascend up onto the pediment. From the looks of the planned traverse, the rover will follow this cliff uphill, squeezing through a narrow passage and then ascending a ramp. However, before all that I expect they'll want to drill nearby to where we are now, to document the chemistry of the rocks directly underneath the pediment. Once we're ontop, the view will be very special. Looks like they plan on sending the rover towards that big ridge that runs down the middle of it - my understanding is that there's debate over whether the Greenheugh pediment represents just aeolian sandstones, basically a lateral continuation of the stimson formation (remember the buttes all those years ago?), alternatively it might be an alluvial fan. It certainly resembles a fan in shape and that big ridge running down the middle could be an inverted channel. This is why the mission geologists want to send the rover there, to check which theory's true!
The sol 3203 panorama kindly provided by Jan, in circular form. A very rough landscape!
Phil
Click to view attachment
Phil
Click to view attachment
I tried taking one of the auto-generated Navcam mosaics - turning it into philovision and then an HDR stretch to even out some of the lighting for the Sol 3204 mosaic - came out pretty well.
My work here is done.
Phil
Phil
For those wondering - rough (but not JPGd) post drive imaging mosaics get posted here - https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/mosaics/ - automagically by a downlink script that generates them after downlink. If you see multiple mosaics for a given sol, that's subsequent downlink passes sending more data to fill in more blanks. That's what I used to make that phil-o-vision from 2 posts ago
Sol 3206 - we had a c. 5 m drive northwest (maybe for an interesting target?) - map update after Grandad duty.
Phil
Phil
QUOTE (djellison @ Aug 12 2021, 04:20 PM)
For those wondering - rough (but not JPGd) post drive imaging mosaics get posted here - https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/mosaics/ - automagically by a downlink script that generates them after downlink. If you see multiple mosaics for a given sol, that's subsequent downlink passes sending more data to fill in more blanks. That's what I used to make that phil-o-vision from 2 posts ago
Oh to get those unstretched images as png's on the day they are downlinked... maybe as a 10 year anniversary gift?
This late in the mission - when budgets for refactoring the website to receive them - pretty unlikely. But I'll try and ask around.
Sol 3206 Mastcam Drive Direction
And post drive imaging in Phil-O-Vision
QUOTE (Saturns Moon Titan @ Aug 11 2021, 09:24 PM)
Click to view attachment
And we have almost arrived at the pediment already! The resistant capstone at the top of the cliff in front of us is indeed the Greenheugh pediment I have overlaid the MSAR_10 route (the most recent strategic route) to show roughly where the team probably intends to ascend up onto the pediment. From the looks of the planned traverse, the rover will follow this cliff uphill, squeezing through a narrow passage and then ascending a ramp. However, before all that I expect they'll want to drill nearby to where we are now, to document the chemistry of the rocks directly underneath the pediment. Once we're ontop, the view will be very special. Looks like they plan on sending the rover towards that big ridge that runs down the middle of it - my understanding is that there's debate over whether the Greenheugh pediment represents just aeolian sandstones, basically a lateral continuation of the stimson formation (remember the buttes all those years ago?), alternatively it might be an alluvial fan. It certainly resembles a fan in shape and that big ridge running down the middle could be an inverted channel. This is why the mission geologists want to send the rover there, to check which theory's true!
And we have almost arrived at the pediment already! The resistant capstone at the top of the cliff in front of us is indeed the Greenheugh pediment
I have overlaid the MSAR_10 route (the most recent strategic route) to show roughly where the team probably intends to ascend up onto the pediment. From the looks of the planned traverse, the rover will follow this cliff uphill, squeezing through a narrow passage and then ascending a ramp. However, before all that I expect they'll want to drill nearby to where we are now, to document the chemistry of the rocks directly underneath the pediment. Once we're ontop, the view will be very special. Looks like they plan on sending the rover towards that big ridge that runs down the middle of it - my understanding is that there's debate over whether the Greenheugh pediment represents just aeolian sandstones, basically a lateral continuation of the stimson formation (remember the buttes all those years ago?), alternatively it might be an alluvial fan. It certainly resembles a fan in shape and that big ridge running down the middle could be an inverted channel. This is why the mission geologists want to send the rover there, to check which theory's true!Some Hong Kong University scientists in a recent paper have suggested that all rock layers studied by Cuuriosity so far except for the Bradbury formation seem to be wind swept deposits rather than lacustrine. Any ideas?
QUOTE (Julius @ Aug 15 2021, 10:53 AM)
Some Hong Kong University scientists in a recent paper have suggested that all rock layers studied by Cuuriosity so far except for the Bradbury formation seem to be wind swept deposits rather than lacustrine. Any ideas?
FYI
Intense subaerial weathering of eolian sediments in Gale crater, Mars
Jiacheng Liu1,2, Joseph R. Michalski1,2, and Mei-Fu Zhou1,3
Science Advances 06 Aug 2021:Vol. 7, no. 32, eabh2687 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh2687
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/32/eabh2687.full
Figure #6 from the paper summarizes their theory
Only sporadic updates from me for a few days as I am on vacation...
Phil
Phil
Panorama taken on sol 3206 with extended sky. The view on Greenheugh pediment is really beautiful.
Sol 3209 Lmastcam drive direction:
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
QUOTE (neo56 @ Aug 16 2021, 10:19 PM)
Panorama taken on sol 3206 with extended sky. The view on Greenheugh pediment is really beautiful.
Wow. That's some impressive captstone...
Trying to catch up after a break - here are two of Jan's panoramas in circular form giving nice views of the rugged terrain as we crawl through it.
Phil
Sol 3206: Click to view attachment
Sol 3209: Click to view attachment
Phil
Sol 3206: Click to view attachment
Sol 3209: Click to view attachment
QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Aug 21 2021, 08:26 AM)
Trying to catch up after a break - here are two of Jan's panoramas in circular form giving nice views of the rugged terrain as we crawl through it.
Phil
Phil
WOW! Thanks a lot Phil
Panorama taken with NavCam Right on sol 3210, with an extra sky.
And a cropped version centered on the Sands of Forvie. What a scenic view!
And a cropped version centered on the Sands of Forvie. What a scenic view!
More of Jan's panoramas in circular form. Superficially similar but they show good progress through this interesting landscape.
Phil
Sol 3210: Click to view attachment
Sol 3211: Click to view attachment
Sol 3212: Click to view attachment
Phil
Sol 3210: Click to view attachment
Sol 3211: Click to view attachment
Sol 3212: Click to view attachment
A beautiful selfie taken on sol 3215. Curiosity is staring at the sky... looking to the Earth maybe? 
Sol 3212 Rmastcam:
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
And the sol 3212 Lmastcam drive direction view:
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Sol 3215 Rmastcam:
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Click to view attachment
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