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NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Sol 1647: Approaching the dune edge
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 115 images taken on Sol 1647 (March 24, 2017).
The traction control test went well, and MSL drove over 30 meters on Sol 1646. The rover will be busy this weekend with lots of remote sensing, arm work, and a drive onto the edge of the dune . On Sol 1647, Left Mastcam will take a 360-degree panorama and Right Mastcam will acquire a 17x3 mosaic of the edge of the sand dune, which was named "Ogunquit Beach." Then ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe bedrock targets "Damariscotta Lake," "Mount Katahdin," and "Boothbay Harbor." Late that afternoon, the arm will be unstowed for drill diagnostic tests and a full suite of MAHLI images on another bedrock target dubbed "Halftide Ledge." APXS will then be placed on the same target for an overnight integration.
On Sol 1648, the arm will be stowed after more drill diagnostic tests and Navcam will search for dust devils while REMS acquires environmental data. Then the rover will drive onto the dune, toward a target near the center of the image above. After the drive, the arm will be unstowed to allow Mastcam and Navcam to acquire stereo images of the arm workspace to support planning next week. Early the next morning, Mastcam will measure the dust in the atmosphere and Navcam will search for clouds. In the afternoon, Right Mastcam will repeatedly take pictures of 3 areas near the rover to look for changes due to winds. Mastcam will also search for dust devils and measure atmospheric dust at two different times of day. Finally, the rover will sleep through the night to recharge in preparation for what will likely be a busy week.
Ken Herkenhoff
Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the MSL science team
Other panoramas of Mars by Curiosity rover:
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The planet Earth has proven to be too limiting for our awesome community of panorama photographers. We're getting an increasing number of submissions that depict locations either not on Earth (like Mars, the Moon, and Outer Space in general) or do not realistically represent a geographic location on Earth (either because they have too many special effects or are computer generated) and hence don't strictly qualify for our Panoramic World project.But many of these panoramas are extremely beautiful or popular of both.So, in order to accommodate our esteemed photographers and the huge audience that they attract to 360Cities with their panoramas, we've created a new section (we call it an "area") called "Out of this World" for panoramas like these.Don't let the fact that these panoramas are being placed at the Earth's South Pole fool you - we had to put them somewhere in order not to interfere with our Panoramic World.Welcome aboard on a journey "Out of this World".
