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Mars arrives on its perihelion, or closest point of the sun, on September 16, 2018 and, as often happens when Mars approaches its source of light and heat, a global dust storm has raged for several months on the red planet . The dust storm began in May 2018 and became global in June, wiping the sun off the surface of Mars and cutting off signals from NASA's rover Opportunity, which remains silent. Meanwhile, the dust storm has stopped, and now NASA has released a new 360-degree panorama of its Curiosity rover, made with footage acquired in August, shown in the interactive video above.
Is not it great ?! Take a few moments to explore the video, and you will see dust clouds still hanging in the Martian air, in the distance, as well as dust on the surface of the vehicle.
See larger | NASA's Curiosity rover acquired the images to create this 360-degree panorama at its location on Vera Ridge Ridge on August 9, 2018. Image via NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.
The Curiosity rover also grabbed a new rock sample on August 9th. The drilling site is illustrated below:
It took 3 attempts for the Curiosity rover on Mars to pierce this hole on Vera Rubin Ridge, but it was successful on August 9, 2018. Scientists sang: this image.
NASA said the new drill sample "delighted" the Curiosity science team because:
… The last two attempts to drill the rover have been thwarted by rocks of unexpected hardness. Curiosity began using a new drilling method earlier this year to work around a mechanical problem. The tests showed that it was as effective at drilling rocks as the old method, suggesting that hard rocks would have been a problem, regardless of the method used.
After drilling, the vehicle stopped on Mars to study the surroundings, producing the 360-degree panorama presented in the video above and the photos below. NASA said:
The panorama includes darker skies, darkened by a global dust storm in decline. It also includes a rare view of the Mast Camera of the mobile itself, revealing a thin layer of dust on the Curiosity Bridge. In the foreground, the most recent drill target of the rover, named "Stoer" after a city in Scotland, near which important discoveries about life on Earth were made in the sediments of the lake bed.
It's an optimistic idea from the Curiosity science team!
Learn more about what Curiosity does, via NASA
Close up of the August 2018 panorama of Mars made by the Curiosity rover. See the dust on the surface of the mobile? Image via NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.
In Summary: A 360-degree panorama in August 2018 of NASA's Curiosity rover. Notice the dust!
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