Did somebody depart a communicator badge mendacity on Mars?
NASA’s long-running Curiosity rover mission simply noticed a well-known form to “Star Trek” followers: The enduring delta-shaped emblem that Starfleet officers usually put on on their uniforms. Sadly, it could be extremely illogical to say {that a} Starfleet touchdown celebration walked close to Curiosity’s roving grounds, because the picture was of a mere Mars rock that simply so occurs to resemble the “Star Trek” image.
The picture was initially posted on the Mars Curiosity uncooked photos website offered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It was taken with the rover’s left navigation digital camera on Mars day, or sol, 4062 of the mission on Jan. 9.
Newbie astronomer Scott Atkinson noticed the Trekkie image and joked about it on X, previously Twitter. “I wager the Star Trek followers on the @MarsCuriosity workforce smiled like Cheshire Cats after they noticed this new picture seem on their screens,” Atkinson posted on Jan. 10, alongside the picture and a close-up of the delta signal.
Curiosity landed on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012 and continues to roll on in its long-standing seek for the situations of life on the Purple Planet. As part of that lengthy mission, it’s climbing a mountain nicknamed Mount Sharp (or Aeolis Mons) and peering on the layers embedded in it to see how water flowed within the historic previous of Mars.
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“Totally different layers of Mount Sharp symbolize totally different eras of Martian historical past. As Curiosity ascends, scientists study extra about how the panorama modified over time,” JPL officers wrote in September 2023. The rover is now in a zone that’s crammed with sulfate, the assertion added, “which will be the highest elevation layer it is going to ever go to.”
I wager the Star Trek followers on the @MarsCuriosity workforce smiled like Cheshire Cats after they noticed this new picture seem on their screens… :-)Picture Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech pic.twitter.com/SdWyq4Sc5PJanuary 10, 2024
Curiosity took the images whereas it was about to do “contact science on a flat block of dark-toned bedrock”, in accordance with a Jan. 9 replace on the mission’s weblog. One in all its near-term objectives might be to look at, within the rocks, “composition and texture of the darkish bands we have been observing from orbit” utilizing a number of devices.
The success of Curiosity at Gale Crater allowed NASA to ship a follow-up rover mission, Perseverance, to the Purple Planet’s Jezero Crater in 2020. Perseverance is trying to find indicators of historic Purple Planet life.
NASA can also be planning a Mars pattern return mission that ought to convey again caches of rocks that Perseverance is laying apart, however funding and expertise points will probably push again its anticipated 2031 return date.
Initially posted on Area.com.
