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June 20, 2025 - Sol 4577

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/UofA

The drive distance may be amended later as there are 2 official data sources, and the one I don't usually use indicates the distance was a little longer at 405.49 m. I've decided to report on the shorter one for the time being

end-of-drive upper tier NavCam looking south after the second longest daily drive since landing. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

A pair of end-of-drive NavCams show us the new workspace after a drive on sol 4575 (June 20, 2025)

Assembled from 15 overlapping L-MastCam sub-frame Bayer reconstructed images from sol 4573. It's the rover's current workspace. Not sure how long they will stay here, but the journey to the next major science waypoint (Boxworks) to the south will continue soon.

Perseverance rover acquired this image of the coring bit located in the Carousel using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The image has been rotated to correct the orientation of the carousel.

This image was acquired on June 18, 2025 (Sol 1538) at the local mean solar time of 15:21:21.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Sample Caching System Camera (CacheCam), located inside the rover underbelly. It looks down into the top of a sample tube to take close-up pictures of the sampled material and the tube as it's prepared for sealing and storage.

The tube can be reused for further coring attempts

This image was acquired on June 18, 2025 (Sol 1538) at the local mean solar time of 14:28:07.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera at full zoom. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. No obvious damage is seen and they managed to remove the coring bit that was being used when the coring operation shattered the bedrock.

This image was acquired on June 18, 2025 (Sol 1538) at the local mean solar time of 15:08:18.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. Checks out a section of the bedrock broken during a failed coring attempt a week ago

This image was acquired on June 18, 2025 (Sol 1538) at the local mean solar time of 13:20:39.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Monday's Blog

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, looking southwest toward the distant large boxwork structures in the Uyuni quad, using its Left Navigation Camera on June 15, 2025 — Sol 4571, or Martian day 4,571 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 21:27:38 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center

Earth planning date: Monday, June 16, 2025

Over the weekend Curiosity successfully wrapped up activities at the “Altadena” drill site and got back on the road. The approximately 48-meter drive (about 157 feet) was successful, and placed the rover in the next mapping quadrangle (informally referred to as a quad).

As a reminder, the rover’s exploration area has been divided into 1.5 kilometer by 1.5 kilometer square quads, and each quad is named after a town of less than 100,000 people. As Curiosity explores features within a quad, we assign informal target names that correspond to geologic formations and features from that town on Earth.

Uyuni, Bolivia, is the gateway city near the world’s largest salt flats (salars), and it seems like an appropriate name as Curiosity explores drier depositional environments higher in the Mount Sharp stratigraphy. The team is excited to use some new target names that will draw from Uyuni and surrounding areas, including the Atacama Desert in Chile, which hosts many Mars analog sites including eolian features, studies of life in extreme environments, and some of the world’s great observatories. A fitting theme for this next phase of exploration!

As for today’s two-sol plan, we have a good balance of contact science, remote sensing, and another long drive. The team planned APXS and MAHLI on a nodular bedrock target named “Flamingo” to assess its chemistry and texture. In the targeted remote sensing block, the science team planned a Mastcam mosaic of “Los Patos” to characterize a depression which may be related to a small impact crater or boxwork structures, along with a Mastcam image of “La Lava” to investigate an interesting dark block. There are also several Mastcam mosaics of nearby troughs to assess active surface processes, and documentation images for ChemCam observations. The plan includes a ChemCam LIBS observation on a target named “Tacos” to assess the local bedrock, and a long-distance RMI mosaic to evaluate sedimentary structures at “Mishe Mokwa” butte. Then the rover will drive about 56 meters (about 184 feet) to the southwest, and take post-drive imaging to prepare for the next plan. On the second sol, Curiosity will complete a ChemCam calibration target activity, a Mastcam data management activity, and a few Navcam activities to monitor clouds and dust in the atmosphere.

We’re looking forward to exploring more of Uyuni as we work our way toward the larger exposure of boxwork structures that lie ahead, and the clues they hold to ancient Mars conditions.