Curiosity Blog, Sols 4577-4579: Watch the Skies

Written by Deborah Padgett, the OPGS task is underway at the NASA propulsion laboratory

Earth planning date: Friday June 20, 2025

During the plan covering the soils 4575-4576, curiosity continued our investigation into the mysterious boxwork structures on the shoulders of Mount Sharp. After a successful 56 -meter journey (about 184 feet), curiosity is now parked in a hollow which cuts through a very fractured region covered with linear characteristics considered as proof of a strength of groundwater in the distant past of Mars. With the six wheels firmly planted on solid land, our rover is ready for contact science! Unfortunately, a rehearsal of the frost detection experience expected for the weekend plan is postponed for a few days due to a well understood chemicam problem. In the meantime, our atmospheric surveys have a chance to shine because they have received more time to observe the Martian sky.

At the start of the afternoon of soil 4577, Curiosity’s navigation cameras will take a film of the upper sections of Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp), in the hope of seeing shadows of mobile clouds. This observation allows the team to calculate the altitude of the clouds drifting on the peak. Then, Navcam will point directly upwards, for image the movement of the cloud at the level of the zenith and will determine the direction of the wind at their altitude. Mastcam will then make a series of small mosaics to study the Rover workspace and the characteristics of the trough that curiosity has entered. The first is a 6×4 stereo mosaic of the workspace and the target contact science “Copacabana” and “copiapo”. The first target is a representative sample of the foundation of the hollow of the hollow, and its name celebrates a city in Bolivia located on the banks of Lake Titicaca. The second target is a lighter material section, which can be associated with scratches or “veins” filling the many transverse cutting fractures in local stones. These are the deposits potentially left by the intrusion of groundwater a long time ago. The name “Copiapo” pays tribute to a silver mining city in the extremely dry Atacama desert in northern Chile. A second stereo mosaic mastcam 6×3 will examine the cracks active in the hollow. Two additional stereo mosaics 5×1 5×1 target “Ardamarca”, a crest parallel to the hollow walls, and a cliff exposing layers of rock at the base of “Mishe Mokwa” Butte. In our current location, all the target names of curiosity are taken from the Uyuni geological quadrilateral named after the lake bed and ephemeral of another world on the Bolivian Altiplano, but the Mishe Mokwa Butte is back in the Quad Altadena, named for a popular hiking trail in the mountains of Santa Monica. After this long scientific block, curiosity will deploy its arm, brush the dust of Copacabana with the DRT, then the image at the same time and to Copiapo with the microscopic imagery mahli. Overnight, the APX will determine the composition of these two targets.

Early in the morning of soil 4578, Mastcam will take large stereo mosaics 27×5 and 18×3 from different parts of the hollow, using morning light to highlight the shadows of the field. Later in the day, Navcam will make a 360 Sky investigation, determining the phase function throughout the sky. A 25-meter (approximately 82 feet) route will follow, and post-training imaging includes both a 360-degree navcam panorama of our new location and an image of the ground under the rover with Tuesday in the evening twilight. The following soil is all atmospheric science, with a large set of afternoon suprahorizon films and a study of dust for Navcam, as well as an observation of the opacity of mastcam dust. The latest series of observations in this plan occurs in the 4580 floor morning with more Suprahorizon and Zenith Navcam films to observe the clouds, a measure of opacity of the Navcam dust through the scabs and a last tau mastcam. On Monday, we expect to plan another training and hope to return to the gel detection experience as soon as we explore the canyons of Mars.