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NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Views Striated Ground
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A landscape scene from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows rock rows at "Junda" forming striations in the foreground, with Mount Sharp on the horizon. The component images were taken by the rover's Navigation Camera (Navcam), looking southward, during a pause in driving on Feb. 19.
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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has reached an area where orbital images had piqued researchers' interest in patches of ground with striations all oriented in a similar direction.
A close-up look at some of the striations from the rover's Navigation Camera gains extra drama by including Mount Sharp in the background. The lower slopes of that layered mountain are the mission's long-term science destination.
he foreground rocks are in an outcrop called "Junda," which the rover passed during a drive of 328 feet (100 meters) on Feb. 19. It paused during the drive to take the component images of the scene, then finished the day's drive. A location still ahead, called "Kimberley," where researchers plan to suspend driving for a period of science investigations, also features ground with striations.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) for this look back after finishing a long drive on Feb. 19, 2014. The rows of rocks just to the right of the fresh wheel tracks in this view are an outcrop called "Junda." This view is looking toward the east-northeast.
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This panorama combining images taken on Feb. 10, 2014, by the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover looks back to where the rover crossed a dune at "Dingo Gap" four days earlier. The view is centered toward the east and spans about 225 degrees.
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Panoramic View From West of 'Dingo Gap'
This scene looking back at where Curiosity crossed a dune at "Dingo Gap" combines several exposures taken by the Navigation Camera (Navcam) high on the rover's mast. The panorama is centered toward the east and spans about 225 degrees, from north-northwest at the left to west-southwest at the right. For scale, the distance between Curiosity's parallel wheel tracks is about 9 feet (2.7 meters). The panorama is presented here as a cylindrical projection.
The component images were taken during the 539th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Feb. 10, 2014) from a location reached by a drive the preceding sol. Curiosity crossed the dune at Dingo Gap, near the middle of the horizon of this scene, on Sol 535 (Feb. 6, 2014). The dune is about 3 feet (1 meter) tall.
The high-mounted cylinder on the rear part of the vehicle is the rover's UHF (ultrahigh frequency) antenna. The set of disks mounted below it is part of the calibration target for Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. The ball-on-a-stick device in the foreground is the calibration target, including a sundial, for Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). To the right of the UHF antenna in this image are the radiator fins for Curiosity's power supply, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover and the rover's Navcam.
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 547 (2014-02-19 05:08:25 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 547 (2014-02-19 05:10:29 UTC).
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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 19, 2014, Sol 547 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 05:29:11 UTC.
When this image was obtained, the focus motor count position was 12552. This number indicates the internal position of the MAHLI lens at the time the image was acquired. This count also tells whether the dust cover was open or closed. Values between 0 and 6000 mean the dust cover was closed; values between 12500 and 16000 occur when the cover is open. For close-up images, the motor count can in some cases be used to estimate the distance between the MAHLI lens and target. For example, in-focus images obtained with the dust cover open for which the lens was 2.5 cm from the target have a motor count near 15270. If the lens is 5 cm from the target, the motor count is near 14360; if 7 cm, 13980; 10 cm, 13635; 15 cm, 13325; 20 cm, 13155; 25 cm, 13050; 30 cm, 12970. These correspond to image scales, in micrometers per pixel, of about 16, 25, 32, 42, 60, 77, 95, and 113.
Most images acquired by MAHLI in daylight use the sun as an illumination source. However, in some cases, MAHLI's two groups of white light LEDs and one group of longwave ultraviolet (UV) LEDs might be used to illuminate targets. When Curiosity acquired this image, the group 1 white light LEDs were off, the group 2 white light LEDs were off, and the ultraviolet (UV) LEDS were off.
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 547 (2014-02-19 03:50:06 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 547 (2014-02-19 05:23:59 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 547 (2014-02-19 05:24:31 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Right B (FHAZ_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 547 (2014-02-19 03:57:11 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 548 (2014-02-20 04:54:12 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 548 (2014-02-20 05:02:42 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 548 (2014-02-20 05:03:07 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 548 (2014-02-20 05:03:31 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 548 (2014-02-20 05:04:06 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 548 (2014-02-20 06:10:33 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 549 (2014-02-21 06:12:22 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 549 (2014-02-21 07:52:54 UTC).
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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 21, 2014, Sol 549 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 04:04:45 UTC.
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 549 (2014-02-21 07:50:11 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 549 (2014-02-21 08:06:30 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Right B (FHAZ_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 549 (2014-02-21 07:46:37 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 550 (2014-02-22 06:45:45 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 550 (2014-02-22 06:46:01 UTC).
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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 22, 2014, Sol 550 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 05:45:16 UTC.
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 550 (2014-02-22 06:42:19 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 550 (2014-02-22 06:46:52 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Left B (FHAZ_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 550 (2014-02-22 06:40:14 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 551 (2014-02-23 07:07:40 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 551 (2014-02-23 07:20:56 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 551 (2014-02-23 07:26:23 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Right B (FHAZ_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 551 (2014-02-23 05:11:52 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 552 (2014-02-24 08:09:30 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 552 (2014-02-24 08:11:06 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 552 (2014-02-24 08:19:48 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Right B (FHAZ_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 552 (2014-02-24 06:37:29 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 553 (2014-02-25 09:22:50 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 553 (2014-02-25 09:23:22 UTC).
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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 25, 2014, Sol 553 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 07:50:18 UTC.
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This image was taken by Navcam: Right B (NAV_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 553 (2014-02-25 10:59:43 UTC).
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 553 (2014-02-25 10:57:48 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Left B (FHAZ_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 553 (2014-02-25 08:37:41 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 554 (2014-02-26 06:43:51 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 554 (2014-02-26 06:44:09 UTC).
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This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 554 (2014-02-26 06:54:49 UTC).
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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 26, 2014, Sol 554 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 08:36:04 UTC.
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This image was taken by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 554 (2014-02-26 09:44:36 UTC).
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This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Left B (FHAZ_LEFT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 554 (2014-02-26 08:59:36 UTC).
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Foto: NASA
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