NASA’s Curiosity rover has managed to survive the harsh conditions on Mars for 9 years. To commemorate the occasion, NASA shared a 360-degree panorama shot that the rover snapped in July. Curiosity reached the Gale Crater in early August 2012 and has been trekking the side of the 8km Mount Sharp. The space agency said the views of “knobbly rocks and rounded hills are delighting scientists.”
The detailed image can be downloaded from NASA’s website. It is created by merging 129 individual images stitched together. The view seems clear in the image, thanks to winters in the Gale Crater, a time when skies aren’t full of dust.
Almost a decade on Mars
The space agency also shared a guided tour of the panorama that highlights the landscape, including dark Martian sand and the distant rim of the crater. The image shows a transition zone between a clay-rich area and a sulfate-bearing region “The mountain’s layers in this area may reveal how the ancient environment within Gale Crater dried up over time,” NASA said.
The rover has traveled 26 km and drilled 32 holes during these 9 years on the Red Planet. “Landing day is still one of the happiest days of my professional career,” said Megan Richardson, Curiosity project manager.
Curiosity has company
Currently, the Perseverance rover is also working on the Martian soil, looking for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Recently, Perseverance failed to collect rock samples on Mars. NASA said that the rover failed to extract a Martian rock sample despite everything going as planned. The surface on Mars has created similar issues in the past as well.
NASA has many crewed missions planned for Mars. As a part of its ambitions, the space agency and its contractors are working on replicating the Martian surface on Earth. Icon 3D has announced that it has managed to 3D print the first simulated Mars Surface Habitat.
Recently Icon won a subcontract for the NASA Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) for developing a 3D-printed habitat. The habitat is called Mars Dune Alpha and was created at the Johnson Space Center.
