On its 4,500th sol (or Martian day), NASA's Mars rover Curiosity continued its climb of Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons) at the center of Gale Crater. Before it can ascend higher, though, the six-wheeled rover needs to navigate a small ridgeline, which mission scientists have dubbed "Devil's Gate" (on the right side of this image).
Why is this amazing?
"The blocks scattered around the base of Devil’s Gate are ripe with interesting structures, which motivated the acquisition of an RMI [Remote Micro-Imager] mosaic across the ridge," wrote planetary geologist Michelle Minitti in a mission update. "Those blocks are also inconvenient for driving and parking the rover with all six wheels firmly on the ground."
"Our last drive ended with our front wheels not quite on solid ground," she said.
Why is this area of interest?
Despite being a navigation challenge, the rocks in front of the rover have complex textures and structures. Mission managers used Curiosity's science tools to analyze the chemical content of the rocks and captured a stereo mosaic image to provide a three-dimensional view of its structures.
"Devil’s Gate was not the only feature that the team was excited to image," wrote Minitti. "ChemCam added a second RMI mosaic along the base of 'Texoli' butte, which you can see the flank of on the left side of the image above. Mastcam [also] planned a mosaic across an expanse of bedrock that looks like rolling waves frozen in place at 'Maidenhair Falls.'"
What's next for Curiosity at Devil's Gate?
According to Minitti, the mission team plans to drive Curiosity further around the base of the ridgeline, before using the rover's cameras to look back on the path it has recently traveled.
"The sky gets a lot of attention in this plan with suites of observations taken at two different times — near midday and early morning — to assess variability across the day. Each window of time had Navcam dust-devil and cloud movies, and measurements of the amount of dust in the atmosphere," wrote Minitti. "The early morning block of observations also had multiple cloud movies cover the full sky."
Where can I learn more?
You can read an overview of Curiosity's mission on Mars and the recent news of its discovery the largest organic molecules ever seen on the red planet.
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