Curiosity Blog, Sols 4589 – 4592: Setting up to explore Volcán Peña Blanca
Written by Abigail Fraeman, scientist of the assistant project in the NASA propulsion laboratory
Earth planning date: Thursday July 3, 2025
The team was delighted this morning to learn that Wednesday’s journey had ended perfectly, placing us in a stable position in front of a ~ 3 feet high peak located about 35 feet. This ridge is the edge is of a characteristic that the team has informally called “Volcán Peña Blanca”. This characteristic certainly seemed intriguing in the orbital images, but once we saw the photos of Curiosity of this one on the ground, we decided that it was cool enough to pass the time to look for it closer. The images of the soil show much more details than what is visible in orbit, including clear sedimentary structures exposed along the face of the ridge, which could provide important clues to the way in which the fields of the boxes of the box have been initially deposited – dunes? Rivers? Lakes? The team chose their favorite place to approach the ridge and take a look during Wednesday planning, so curiosity made a lively turn to take us in this direction. Using today’s images, we have refined our plan for the exact location to approach and planned a reader to take us, putting us in place for contact Science Monday.
We have had the opportunity to plan four floors today, to cover the United States 4th From the July holiday weekend, so there was a lot of time for activities in addition to the road. Curiosity is currently sitting right in front of a few rocks with light tones, including the one we have given the evocative name “Huellas de Dinosaurios”. It is extremely unlikely that we will see fingerprints of dinosaur in the rock, but we will have the chance to investigate it with Apxs, Mahli and Chemcam. We also have a pair of Chemcam targets only on a more typical target of the rocky substratum called “Amboro” and pebbles called “Tunari”. Mastcam will take a high resolution of the mosaic covering Volcán Peña Blanca, certain neighboring rocks called “Laguna Verde”, a small light rock called “Suruto” and various patterns in the ground. Two Mosaics Chemcam RMI Characteristics in Mishe Mokwa surveillance activities and environmental surveillance complete the plan.
