Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 23, 2022 Striking rock formations documented by the rover provide evidence of...
For the past year, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has been traveling through a transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty mineral called sulfate.
The clay minerals formed when lakes and streams once rippled across Gale Crater, depositing sediment at what is now the base of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall mountain whose foothills Curiosity has been ascending since 2014.
Higher on the mountain in the transition zone, Curiosity's observations show that the streams dried into trickles and sand dunes formed above the lake sediments.
Curiosity will soon drill the last rock sample it will take in this zone, providing a more detailed glimpse into the changing mineral composition of these rocks.
On June 7, Curiosity went into safe mode after detecting a temperature reading on an instrument control box within the body of the rover that was warmer than expected.
Although Curiosity exited safe mode and returned to normal operations two days later, JPL's engineers are still analyzing the exact cause of the issue.
The rover's aluminum wheels are also showing signs of wear.
On June 4, the engineering team commanded Curiosity to take new pictures of its wheels - something it had been doing every 3,281 feet to check their overall health.
The team discovered that the left middle wheel had damaged one of its grousers, the zig-zagging treads along Curiosity's wheels.
"We have proven through ground testing that we can safely drive on the wheel rims if necessary," said Megan Lin, Curiosity's project manager at JPL. "If we ever reached the point that a single wheel had broken a majority of its grousers, we could do a controlled break to shed the pieces that are left. Due to recent trends, it seems unlikely that we would need to take such action. The wheels are holding up well, providing the traction we need to continue our climb."