Mars Astrobiology Droid Curiosity Arrives At Gediz Vallis Ridge
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this 3D rendering of Gediz Vallis Ridge, a formation the mission’s science team has long sought to explore. It took the mission four attempts over three years to finally reach the ridge in mid-August 2023.
This rendering was created using science data and imagery captured from space by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity team member Alex Bryk made the rendering using the same software the team uses to chart Curiosity’s route up Mount Sharp, which the rover has been ascending since 2014.
Where Curiosity appears in this image, the ridge is estimated to be nearly 70 feet (21 meters) tall. After spending Aug. 14-25 at the ridge, Curiosity departed to drive farther up the mountain; the rover’s team will be searching for a path to the left side of the channel that’s seen at the top of this image.
Caption: Drag your mouse to look around within this 360-degree panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. See the steep slopes, layered buttes, and dark rocks surrounding Curiosity while it was parked below Gediz Vallis Ridge, which formed as a result of violent debris flows that were later eroded by wind into a towering formation. This happened about 3 billion years ago, during one of the last wet periods seen on this part of the Red Planet.
On Aug. 19, 2023, Curiosity’s Mastcam took 136 images that were stitched together into this mosaic after being sent back to Earth. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.
Gediz Vallis Ridge was one of the last features to form on the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, which Curiosity has been ascending since 2014. Dark rocks studding the landscape in this panorama were likely carried down from higher up on Mount Sharp, where Curiosity will never venture. Studying these rocks on the ridge allows scientists a rare look at material from the upper part of the mountain.
Arriving after one of the most difficult climbs the mission has ever faced, Curiosity spent 11 days at the ridge. It then departed to ascend higher up the mountain, where the rover will investigate Gediz Vallis Channel, through which water flowed some 3 billion years ago, carrying the rocks and debris that piled up to begin forming the ridge.
Curiosity Views Gediz Vallis Ridge
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree panorama while parked below Gediz Vallis Ridge (the hill-like slope at right). After three attempts over the course of three years, the rover finally reached the ridge on its fourth try on Aug. 14, 2023, the 3,923rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Astrobiology
