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Made with a telescope shaded from bright sunlight by an umbrella,

From a garden on planet Earth, 38 hours of exposure

What's at the tip of this interstellar jet?

Sometimes, the Moon visits the Pleiades.

How much mass do flocculent spirals hide?

Why are there so many moonquakes?

Moon Near the Edge

If the perennially versatile 'Doctor Who' isn't a mixed bag, it isn't fulfilling its true potential.

Blue Origin will stream the launch of its next suborbital tourism mission, which features a star-studded, all-female crew, on April 14.

Easter falls on the Sunday that follows the first full moon occurring on or after the day of the spring equinox. So it seems like Easter should be this weekend. Here's why it isn't.

Curiosity Navigation

• Curiosity Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

2 min read

Sols 4507-4508: “Just Keep Driving” NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on April 9, 2025, Sol 4505 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 00:56:30 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Our drive from Monday’s plan was mostly successful, putting us ~22 meters down the “road” out of an expected 30 meters. A steering command halted the drive a little short when we tried to turn-in-place but instead turned into a rock, which also had the effect of making our position too unstable for arm activities. Oh well! APXS data has been showing the recent terrain as being pretty similar in composition, so the team isn’t complaining about trying again after another drive. Plus, keeping the arm stowed should give us a little more power to play with in the coming sols (an ongoing struggle this Martian winter).

Recently, my job on Mastcam has been to make sure our science imaging is as concurrent as possible with required rover activities. This strategy helps save rover awake time, AKA power consumption. Today we did a pretty good job with this, only increasing the total awake time by ~2 minutes even though we planned 52 images! Our imaging today included a mosaic of the “Devil’s Gate” ridge including some nodular bedrock and distant “Torote Bowl,” a mosaic of a close-by vein network named “Moonstone Beach,” and several sandy troughs surrounding the bedrock blocks we see here. 

ChemCam is planning a LIBS raster on a vertical vein in our workspace named “Jackrabbit Flat,” and a distant RMI mosaic of “Condor Peak” (a butte to the north we’re losing view of). Our drive will happen in the 1400 hour on the first sol, hopefully landing us successfully 53 meters further into this new valley on our way to the boxwork structures to the west! Post-drive, we’re including a test of a “Post Traverse Autonav Terrain Observation” AKA PoTATO – an easy drop-in activity for ground analysis of a rover-built navigation map of our new terrain. Plus we get to say PoTATO a lot.

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4505-4506: Up, up and onto the Devil’s Gate 

Article


3 days ago

3 min read Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate

Article


4 days ago

3 min read Sols 4500-4501: Bedrock With a Side of Sand

Article


4 days ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars Resources

Explore this page for a curated collection of Mars resources.

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

Curiosity Rover (MSL)

Curiosity Navigation

• Curiosity Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

2 min read

Sols 4507-4508: “Just Keep Driving” NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on April 9, 2025, Sol 4505 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 00:56:30 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Our drive from Monday’s plan was mostly successful, putting us ~22 meters down the “road” out of an expected 30 meters. A steering command halted the drive a little short when we tried to turn-in-place but instead turned into a rock, which also had the effect of making our position too unstable for arm activities. Oh well! APXS data has been showing the recent terrain as being pretty similar in composition, so the team isn’t complaining about trying again after another drive. Plus, keeping the arm stowed should give us a little more power to play with in the coming sols (an ongoing struggle this Martian winter).

Recently, my job on Mastcam has been to make sure our science imaging is as concurrent as possible with required rover activities. This strategy helps save rover awake time, AKA power consumption. Today we did a pretty good job with this, only increasing the total awake time by ~2 minutes even though we planned 52 images! Our imaging today included a mosaic of the “Devil’s Gate” ridge including some nodular bedrock and distant “Torote Bowl,” a mosaic of a close-by vein network named “Moonstone Beach,” and several sandy troughs surrounding the bedrock blocks we see here. 

ChemCam is planning a LIBS raster on a vertical vein in our workspace named “Jackrabbit Flat,” and a distant RMI mosaic of “Condor Peak” (a butte to the north we’re losing view of). Our drive will happen in the 1400 hour on the first sol, hopefully landing us successfully 53 meters further into this new valley on our way to the boxwork structures to the west! Post-drive, we’re including a test of a “Post Traverse Autonav Terrain Observation” AKA PoTATO – an easy drop-in activity for ground analysis of a rover-built navigation map of our new terrain. Plus we get to say PoTATO a lot.

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4505-4506: Up, up and onto the Devil’s Gate 

Article


3 days ago

3 min read Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate

Article


4 days ago

3 min read Sols 4500-4501: Bedrock With a Side of Sand

Article


4 days ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars Resources

Explore this page for a curated collection of Mars resources.

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

Curiosity Rover (MSL)

The powerful GOES-19 satellites, one of the most advanced ever built, has taken on a new name.

There’s a chance to see both a Full Pink micromoon and the northern lights in the sky for some this weekend.

Budget passback documents reportedly suggest the White House wants to cut NASA's budget by half — possibly closing down Goddard Space Flight Center.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to know which of the quantum computers now in development have the best chance of being game-changing technologies

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to know which of the quantum computers now in development have the best chance of being game-changing technologies

Proposed cuts would wipe out NOAA’s Ocean and Atmospheric Research office among a raft of other reductions to one of the main scientific agencies of the US

Proposed cuts would wipe out NOAA’s Ocean and Atmospheric Research office among a raft of other reductions to one of the main scientific agencies of the US