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NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Sol 4249: Lunch at Fairview Dome
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 329 images taken on Sol 4249 (July 19, 2024).
We started our day at an outcrop called “Fairview Dome,” a light-colored rock so big that it can easily be seen from orbit! We have had our eye on Fairview Dome since Curiosity descended into the Gediz Vallis channel. As a geologist who has spent a lot of time in the field, I imagined this as a perfect place to drop my backpack, enjoy my lunch, and soak in the stunning panoramic views from this vantage point mid-channel.
The science team opted to stay for two full days of contact science at Fairview Dome and assembled a plan consisting of numerous science observations. In the workspace directly in front of the rover’s wheels, we analyzed Fairview Dome using the dust removal tool, APXS, and MAHLI instruments at a target called “Amphitheater Dome.” The ChemCam team selected two LIBS targets on the Fairview Dome outcrop – “Columbia Finger” and “Agnew Meadows” – to analyze the chemistry. Mastcam planned four stereo mosaics on sol 4248 to image the rover’s surroundings, including the floor of upper Gediz Vallis, the floor of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge, the upper Gediz Vallis ridge channel, and a rock near the rover named “Tresidder Peak.” On the following sol, Mastcam assembled what will surely be a breathtaking, postcard-worthy, 360-degree mosaic of our current location. Rounding out Curiosity’s to-do list for this two-sol plan, ChemCam took two long-distance RMI images to document the stratigraphy of the rocks looking up Gediz Vallis toward the south. Science team members in the environmental theme group planned observations including a suprahorizon movie to look at clouds, a dust devil movie, and a mastcam tau survey to measure the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Today, I served as the science team member responsible for compiling and organizing the details for each activity from the geology and mineralogy theme groups. Despite the intensity of the planning session, the spectacular views at Fairview Dome made me pause to appreciate where we are and how far Curiosity has come. And with so much striking geology still in front of us, it is indeed a very exciting time to be exploring on Mars! Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy Other panoramas of Mars by Curiosity rover:
Planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
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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".
