Some Mars rovers have associates, whereas others have foes, and sadly for NASA’s Curiosity, it falls into this latter bracket. The rover’s nemesis comes within the type of Gediz Vallis Ridge, which has been dubbed Mars’ “Bermuda Triangle” as a result of a number of thwarted efforts to achieve it. Now, Curiosity is ready to make one other, hopefully much less futile, try to greatest its rocky rival.
Gediz Vallis is part of Mars’ Mount Sharp the place water as soon as flowed. It due to this fact contains boulders from a lot increased up the mountain, which the rover would in any other case be unable to achieve. Curiosity has tried, and failed, to achieve it thrice now: first again in 2020, throughout its first troublesome climb onto the Greenheugh Pediment; then once more final 12 months, in an try that was blocked by the treacherous “gator-back” ridges; and most not too long ago on its climb out of the Marker Band Valley.
Will this subsequent effort be fourth time fortunate?
“The Gediz Vallis Ridge has been a long-term, and, at occasions, seemingly not possible aim of the Curiosity Rover mission,” reads the rover’s newest mission replace.
Because of this, the elusive area of the Pink Planet has been nicknamed the “Bermuda Triangle” of Mount Sharp by the crew, after the part of the North Atlantic Ocean by which ships, planes, and persons are alleged to have mysteriously vanished.
In accordance with the replace, Curiosity is closing in on the ridge, and is simply meters away from having the ability to attain its arm out and make contact with the ridge materials.
As you may count on when confronted with such a tricky adversary, it’s been no simple journey so far, with the rocky terrain making for unsure footing for Curiosity’s wheels. However, optimistically, the rover will quickly attain its vacation spot, the place it’ll carry out imaging to doc the geology of the situation, adopted by atmospheric observations, together with a mud measurement and sky survey.
“With [this] plan, Curiosity will hopefully be capable of lastly carry out contact science on a various cluster of [Gediz Vallis] Ridge boulders, presuming that our drive is profitable and doesn’t go away our wheels perched on any of the ample rocks on this steep slope,” the mission replace continues.
Go nicely, Curiosity! Right here’s hoping the Martian “Bermuda Triangle” received’t declare one other victory.
