NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity captures dusty view of Gale Crater's rim (Sol 4813). Continuing boxwork exploration, rover heads east towards contact. Routine
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured a Navcam image on Feb. 19, Sol 4813, depicting the northern rim of Gale Crater with increased atmospheric dust, typical for this season. The image was taken using the Left Navigation Camera at 12:15:50 UTC.
This week has been ordinary for Curiosity as it progresses through the final phase of the boxwork exploration campaign. The rover is heading towards the eastern contact of the boxwork formation with the surrounding geology, planning to drive along this boundary before focusing on the southern contact. This will likely be the last opportunity to study the boxwork area before continuing the mission up Mount Sharp's slopes.
Routine geological investigations have been conducted at each parking location, involving contact science on bedrock targets near the rover, ChemCam LIBS observations of distant targets, and a series of ChemCam RMI and Mastcam mosaics. These mosaics cover observations within the "Tapiche" hollow where Curiosity is currently stationed, as well as the "Los Flamencos" ridge to its south, which will be investigated more closely in the coming week.
The Mars Science Laboratory mission's environmental science group has filled this week's plan with standard atmospheric monitoring activities to track dust devils and atmospheric dust levels, as well as several Navcam cloud movies. So far, the atmosphere over Gale Crater is behaving similarly to most years, showing no signs of imminent dust storms.
Nearly eight years (four Mars years) have passed since the last global dust storm swept across the planet, and close monitoring continues for any potential signs of another one this year.
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