sol 347

Here is a circular panorama made from the sol 347 Right Navcam raw image gallery. The ( relatively ) rapid progress during the last 10 sols or so have afforded  some interesting views, but the most interesting thing is the overall progress itself. Even though it has been just a few hundred meters, there have been a number of new landmarks in the form of rock piles. On each sol we can see the track of Curiosity trailing off to the east in the direction of “Fort Apache”, as evidenced in this image near three o’clock. Mt. Sharp is all along the bottom edge, and “Mt. Fuji” is near one o’clock.

Here is the upper left quadrant as a cylindrical panorama composed of 6 Navcam images. It gives a view of the “rock piles” which dot the area, and of which “Rocknest” was a much smaller example. There were several piles near Rocknest similar to it. My own blue sky theory is that these represent secondary impact events. … It’s gotta be something!

Farewell to all that

As Curiosity “head’s out of town” on Sol 329, it captured the six images in this spherical panorama with its Right Navcam. ( Click to enlarge. ) I’ve labeled a few of the landmarks ( including some I named in previous posts. ) You may note that it seems to be heading away from Mount Sharp, which is its destination. It is going back the way it came, and I think the idea is to traverse the high ground near the landing site, rather than risk getting bogged down in the dunes along the base of the mountain.