Forgot all about Curiosity , did n’t you ? The veteran Mars rover spent most of last calendar month climbing a gentle slope know as the Greenheugh Pediment , but now it has to turn back after encountering shrewd rocks that could damage its wheels .
Though recently overshadowed by the marque - spanking - new Perseverance bird of passage , which is studying a dry out - up crater lake for signboard of fossilized microbic life , the Curiosity rover is still very much alive and well on the Red Planet . Curiosity is studying geology on a lofty Martian mountaintop , which is how it descend across the interesting ( albeit bothersome ) rock formation .
The rocks are sandstone ventifacts — stones taper by old age and eld of wind - driven eating away — and are nicknamed ‘ gator back ’ rocks for their resemblance to the Earth reptilian ’s jumpy dorsal side . Curiosity encountered them on March 18 on the pediment ’s south side , atop the 3.4 - mi - tall Mount Sharp that the bird of passage has been climbing since 2014 . ( In the wintertime , therover captured some arresting images from its idealistic outpost . )
The ‘gator back’ sandstone, as seen by Curiosity on 23 May 2025.Image:NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“ From a distance , we can see cable car - sized boulders that were transport down from high levels of Mount Sharp – perchance by weewee relatively late in Mars ’ wet geological era , ” enunciate Ashwin Vasavada , Curiosity ’s projection scientist at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , in a NASA loss . “ We do n’t really know what they are , so we wanted to see them up closely . ”
agree to NASA , the rocks are n’t unpassable but would well brave out Curiosity ’s wheels . The Curiosity team decided cover the stone was n’t deserving it . Instead , the next brace of weeks will see the rover descend the Greenheugh Pediment to an area deal with clay and sulfates . On a more ancient Mars , the region featured streams and ponds , which dry up asthe Martian climate changed . ( The same reason that Perseverance ’s Jezero Crater is no longer a massive lake ) .
“ It was really cool to see rocks that maintain a time when lakes were drying up and being replaced by streams and dry sand dune , ” said Abigail Fraeman , Curiosity ’s lieutenant project scientist , in the release . “ I ’m really rummy to see what we find as we stay on to mount on this alternate route . ”
Though Curiosity persist — it ’s now been roving Mars for well-nigh a decade — it is depict signs of wear , part of the understanding the team second down from the gator back rocks . The rover ’s robotic sleeve have braking mechanisms which have cease work , though the machine is still able to practice rock-and-roll sample distribution . On a wry planet long devoid of weewee , the Martian stones are both the boon and bane of scientific surgery .
More : NASA and ESA Change Plans for Ambitious Mars Sample Return Mission
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