Curiosity Captures Gorgeous 360 Panorama of 'Rock Hall'

Curiosity's 360 panorama of 'Rock Hall': This panorama from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was taken on Dec. 19 (Sol 2265). The rover's last drill location on Vera Rubin Ridge is visible, as well as the clay region it will spend the next year exploring. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Ken Kremer  --SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM –27 March 2019

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Curiosity rover captured a gorgeous 360 degree color panorama of ‘Vera Rubin Ridge’ with arm raised high showing where she spent more than a year exploring and drilling into Mars at the base Mount Sharp and where  she will spend the forthcoming year in her ongoing quest to search for signs of life.

The car sized rover has now recently moved on from Vera Rubin Ridge to her new Red Planet home and next area of investigation - previously dubbed the ‘clay-bearing unit’ and now renamed ‘Glen Torridon’.

The immense, high resolution ‘Rock Hall’ panorama was created from raw images  taken on Dec. 19, 2018 (Sol 2265) by the robots color Mast Camera (Mastcam).

The 360 pano spans a breathtaking view across the Martian surface inside the floor of Gale Crater showing the rover's last drill location at 'Rock Hall’ on Vera Rubin Ridge as well as ‘Glen Torridon’ - the clay region she will spend the next year exploring.

The scene combines 122 images taken with Mastcam's left-eye camera and was released by the rovers handlers. 

Rock Hall counts as Curiosity’s 19^th drill site in Gale Crater.

‘Glen Torridon’ sits in a trough just south of the ridge. Clay minerals in this unit may hold more clues about the ancient lakes that helped form the lower levels on Mount Sharp.

NASA’s Curiosity rover departs Vera Rubin Ridge and head towards the next exploration site called the Clay Bearing Unit - seen in this mosaic of images from the navigation camera. This navcam camera mosaic was stitched from raw images taken on Sol 2298, Jan. 23, 2019 and colorized. Credit: NASA/JPL/Marco Di Lorenzo Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

The color balance of the pano was adjusted by the team to approximate white balancing so as to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

The rover reached the base of Mount Sharp in 2014 and has been slowly but steadily climbing ever since to carefully examine the sedimentary layers laid down over billions of years. 

Furthermore the team released a 360 degree YouTube so the public can explore the region in detail here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-gZpz8zuDQ

Video Caption: NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Departs Vera Rubin Ridge (360 View): The rover took a 360-degree panorama of the area depicting its last drill hole on the ridge (at a location called "Rock Hall"). Not all browsers support viewing 360 videos. YouTube supports their playback on computers using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera browsers. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Curiosity is currently exploring the lower sedimentary layers of Mount Sharp which tower over 3 miles (5.5 km) into the Martian sky and found that it supported a habitable zone billions of years ago. 

Curiosity rover investigates a huge variety of past environments preserved within Gale Crater along Vera Rubin Ridge while celebrating 2000 Sols of exploration on the Red Planet. Rover deck is backdropped by Mount Sharp in this navcam camera mosaic stitched from raw images taken on Sol 2003, Mar. 26, 2018 and colorized. Credit: NASA/JPL/Marco Di Lorenzo Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Following the demise of the Opportunity rover killed by a planet encircling dust storm after 15 exciting years of exploration, Curiosity is NASA’s only functioning rover operating on the Red Planet.

The stationary InSight lander also continues science operations. 

Here are further details from NASA:

"Even though the rover has left the ridge, Curiosity's team is still piecing together the story of its formation. While there have been a number of clues so far, none fully explains why the ridge has resisted erosion compared with the bedrock around it. But the rover's investigation did find that the rocks of the ridge formed as sediment settled in an ancient lake, similar to rock layers below the ridge.

"We've had our fair share of surprises," said Curiosity science team member Abigail Fraeman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We're leaving with a different perspective of the ridge than what we had before."

A NASA orbiter studying the ridge had previously identified a strong signal from hematite, an iron-rich mineral that often forms in water. Curiosity confirmed the presence of hematite, along with other signs of ancient water, like crystals. These signs appeared in patches, leading the team to suspect that over time groundwater affected certain parts of the ridge differently than others. Another discovery was that the hematite signatures Curiosity mapped didn't always match the view from space.

"The whole traverse is helping us understand all the factors that influence how our orbiters see Mars," Fraeman said. "Looking up close with a rover allowed us to find a lot more of these hematite signatures. It shows how orbiter and rover science complement one another."

The ridge has also served as the backdrop to a roller-coaster year: Curiosity's drill returned to action, only to be stymied by surprisingly hard rocks. Nevertheless, the team managed to get samples from the three major rock types of the ridge. To get around a memory issue, engineers also swapped the rover's computers (the spacecraft was designed with two so that it can continue operations if one experiences a glitch). While the issue is still being diagnosed, operations have continued with little impact on the mission.

The rover's new home, Glen Torridon, is in a trough between Vera Rubin Ridge and the rest of the mountain. This region had been called the clay-bearing unit because orbiter data show that the rocks there contain phyllosilicates — clay minerals that form in water and that could tell scientists more about the ancient lakes that were present in Gale Crater off and on throughout its early history.

"In addition to indicating a previously wet environment, clay minerals are known to trap and preserve organic molecules," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL. "That makes this area especially promising, and the team is already surveying the area for its next drill site."

Curiosity has found both clay minerals and organic molecules in many of the rocks it has drilled since landing in 2012. Organic molecules are the chemical building blocks of life. If both water and organic molecules were present when the rocks formed, the clay-bearing unit may be another example of a habitable environment on ancient Mars — a place capable of supporting life, if it ever existed.

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Curiosity Traverse Map as of Sol 2354. Credit: NASA

As of today, Sol 2359, Mar. 27, 2019 Curiosity has driven over 12.66 miles (20.38) kilometers) since its August 2012 landing inside Gale Crater from the landing site to Mount Sharp and taken over 562,500 amazing images. 

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.
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Apr 3: “Exploring Mars; The Search for Life & A Journey in 3-D.”  7 PM, Lawton C Johnson Middle School, Summit, NJ:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sef-grant-presents-exploring-mars-and-the-search-for-life-3d-registration-55524445110