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NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Sol 1144: Last observations at Greenhorn and driving away
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 140 images taken on Sol 1144 (October 25, 2015).
After a successful investigation focused on alteration zones around fractures, it’s time to move on. We’re still chewing on data from the "Greenhorn" and "Big Sky" drill samples, but we can wrap up a few last observations in this area and drive away in today’s 3-sol plan. On the first sol, we’ll acquire MAHLI images on the pre-sieve dump pile and the nearby target "Vandalia," with overnight APXS on the dump pile. On the second sol, we’ll take a few last Mastcam observations as part of a change detection experiment, and then drive a short distance away. As we turn and drive away, we’ll acquire a DAN active observation over the "Greenhorn" drill hole. The goal of the drive is to get to a good overlook to assess the stratigraphy of the "Meeteetse" area. After the drive we’ll acquire some post-drive imaging to be used for context and future targeting. After several weeks at "Big Sky" and "Greenhorn", it feels good to be getting back on the road (and by ‘road’ I mean completely uncharted territory on another planet!).
By Lauren Edgar
Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of 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".