Path Determined To Have Fewer Hazards Than Alternate Routes

It's Curiosity ... not a Conestoga wagon ... but the team operating NASA's Mars rover will likely drive the rover westward over a dune and across a valley with fewer sharp rock hazards than alternative routes.

A final decision on whether to pass through this valley will ride on evaluation of a short drive planned this week toward the top of the dune that lies across "Dingo Gap." The dune is about 3 feet high at its center, tapered off at both sides of the gap between two low scarps. A color view assembled from images taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the east side of the dune shows details of the valley that the rover may traverse this month.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

(Image provided by NASA. This view combines several frames taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, looking into a valley to the west from the eastern side of a dune at the eastern end of the valley)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/msl