"Rocknest," Curiosity sol 55

Filed under pretty pictures, amateur image processing, Mars, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)

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This sand drift, named Rocknest, became the target for Curiosity's first soil sampling. After taking this panorama on sol 55, Curiosity drove slightly to the right and then took a sharp left turn to prepare to position a front wheel on top of the nearest sand drift. Click through for the sol 56 view.

NASA / JPL / Damia Bouic

Here's the same drift seen on sol 56, as Curiosity prepared to scuff:

NASA / JPL / Damia Bouic

"Rocknest," Curiosity sol 56

Original image data dated on or about October 1, 2012.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For uses not allowed by that license, contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder: Damia Bouic

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Comments:

bware: 10/05/2012 11:41 CDT

Beautiful images! Interesting point for me: Is the science team going to take a look at the pit the wheel dug out by the rock for surface and subsurface comparison and how has it changed over the short time frame of exposure to surface elements, including solar radiation?