[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Rover Curiosity's Color View of Likely Route West

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-035

NASA Mars Rover's Color View of Likely Route West
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 03, 2014

[Image]

The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will likely drive the rover 
westward over a dune and across a valley with fewer sharp rock hazards 
than alternative routes.

A final decision on whether to pass through this valley will ride on evaluation 
of a short drive planned this week toward the top of the dune that lies 
across "Dingo Gap." The dune is about 3 feet (1 meter) high at its center, 
tapered off at both sides of the gap between two low scarps. A color view 
assembled from images taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the 
east side of the dune shows details of the valley that the rover may traverse 
this month.

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.

For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl 
, http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. You can follow 
the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on 
Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

2014-035