This mosaic of 118 images shows where Curiosity is headed through Mars toward the sulfate-containing unit.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover will be the envy of all hikers. You won’t have to hear “Are we there yet?” There will be no stops in the bathroom of the service station. It will simply make its way through the Gale Crater on Mars, heading for new adventures in the long-awaited “sulfate-containing unit.”
The space agency announced Curiosity’s “summer trip” to Mount Sharp on Monday. “At the end of the trip, the rover will be able to ascend to the next 3-mile-high section of the Martian mountain (5 kilometers) that it has been exploring since 2014, looking for conditions that may have supported ancient microbial life.” NASA said.
The sulfate-containing unit is the next area of greatest interest now that Curiosity has finished exploring the plasticine unit.
These areas highlight the history of the water in Gale Crater. “Sulfates, like gypsum and Epsom salts, generally form around water as it evaporates, and are another clue to how the climate and life prospects changed almost 3 billion years ago,” NASA said. .
If all goes well, the rover will arrive in the sulfate region later this year, but only after making its way around a wide sandy patch. NASA is well aware of the dangers of the sand from Mars after its Spirit rover got stuck in a sand trap in 2009.
Curiosity will have to navigate rough terrain in what will shake for a mile-long road trip. The mobile team plans the basic path, but Curiosity’s automated systems will search for and respond to potential terrain obstacles as you travel.
Curiosity is the only NASA mobile vehicle operating on Mars at the moment, but the agency hopes to land. your new Perseverance rover in February, assuming it is released on time in July or August. Then we’ll have even more road trips to Mars to wait.
