Fantastic news , everyone : NASA ’s Curiosity mega rover has successfully crossed overthe parlous Dingo Gapsand sand dune — opening the gateway to the science productive object in the “ Moonlight Valley ” and Martian passel beyond .
https://gizmodo.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-is-about-to-make-its-most-daring-1515646679
“ I ’m over the moon that I ’m over the dune ! I successfully crossed the ‘ Dingo Gap ’ sand duneon Mars , ” Curiosity tweeted overnight Thursday .

“ Moonlight Valley ” is the name of the breathless raw locus beyond Dingo , Curiosity Principal Investigator John Grotzinger , of Caltech , told Universe Today . Curiosity drovewestward over the 1 - metre ( 3 - foot ) tall Dingo Gap dune in stellar style on Thursday , February 6th , on Sol 535 .
Curiosity scans Moonlight Valley beyond Dingo Gap Dune . Curiosity ’s view to “ Moonlight Valley ” beyond after foil over ‘ Dingo Gap ’ sand sand dune . This photomosaic was taken after Curiosity drove over the 1 meter tall Dingo Gap moxie dune and shows dramatic scene in the vale beyond , back dropped by erode lip of Gale Crater . Assembled from navigation camera ( navcam ) raw images from Sol 535 ( Feb. 6 , 2104 ) Credit : NASA / JPL - Caltech / Ken Kremer-kenkremer.com/MarcoDi Lorenzo .
Dramatic before and after photos divulge that the scouter run over theRed Planetdune without trouble . They also show some interesting veins and mineral fracture are visible in the neighbourhood just ahead .

“ Moonlight Valley has got lots of vein cutting through it , ” Grotzinger tell me . “ We ’re seeing recessive bedrock . ”
TheMartiandune consist between two low scarps sitting at the north and south conclusion .
“ The rover successfully traversed the sand dune in Dingo Gap , ” save science team member Ken Herkenhoff in an update . “ The data reckon salutary . ”

Curiosity Crosses ‘ Dingo Gap ’ sand sand dune – Looking forward and back on Sol 535 . Hazcam camera mental image . Credit : NASA .
Since arriving at the picturesque “ Dingo Gap ” Baroness Dudevant sand dune about a workweek ago , Curiosity ’s handlers had chew over whether to breach the sand dune as an alternative pathway into the smoother terrain of the valley beyond as a workplace around to forefend fields of rocky rocks that have been ripping muddle into the robots six aluminum wheels in recent months .
“ We ’re guessing it will be soft on the wheels , ” Grotzinger informed me .

Before make the go onwards to move forward , engineer took a few sidereal day to carefully value the sand dune ’s integrity and forcible characteristics with the rovers science legal instrument and photographic camera to assure there was n’t the potential to get irretrievably stuck in a recondite Baroness Dudevant gob .
The squad even commanded Curiosity to carry out a toe free fall by softly rolling the 20 column inch ( 50 centimeter ) diameter wheels back and forth over the tip on Tuesday , February 4th , to see to it it was safe to mount .
They wo n’t take any probability with rubber , withdraw thatrover Spirit’sdemise hap when she because get stuck in a concealed sand trap in 2010 from which there was ultimately no escape cock . She freeze to death during thebitter Martin winter – more than six old age into her 90 - day mission .

Opportunityalso got deposit at the apparently endless dune field at “ Purgatory Dune ” that nearly doomed her early in the now decade retentive trek . applied scientist spent calendar week on the extrication effort .
Curiosity does a “ toe dip ” wheel question test at Dingo Gap guts dune on Sol 534 , Feb 5 , 2014 before crossing dune on Sol 535 . Hazcam image linearise and colorized . Credit : NASA / JPL / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com .
Since last summer , Curiosity has been traveling on a southwestward path to the breathtaking foothill of Mount Sharp , her ultimate science destination .

The westward route though Dingo will soon lead Curiosity to a spot dubbed “ KMS-9 ” where the team hopes to conduct the first careen drilling operations since departing the Yellowknife Bay quadrant in July 2013 , into areas of challenging fundamental principle .
“ At KMS-9 , we see three terrain types exposed and a comparatively junk - destitute surface , ” aver skill squad pardner Katie Stack of the California Institute of Technology , Pasadena .
The foreign mission science focus has shifted to “ search for that subset of inhabitable environments which also preserves organic carbon paper , ” says Curiosity Principal Investigator John Grotzinger , of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena . But first , with the dune now safely in the rear view mirror , the team plans a busy weekend of research activities . A big science program using the X - Ray mass spectrometer and high solvent MAHLI television camera on the robotic weapon is already plan for this weekend .

“ The arm will be deploy to investigate some interesting nervure or minerals satisfy faulting in front of the rover , ” says Herkenhoff . “ ChemCam will search for icing early on on the morning of Sol 538 ( Saturday ) , then analyze targets Collett and Mussell along the vein / break fill later in the 24-hour interval . ”
Thereafter Curiosity will cover on its journey across the base of Gale Crater , taking images and atmospheric measurements along the way to the aqueous layer at the floor of Mount Sharp .
Curiosity has already accomplished her basal goal ofdiscovering a habitable geographical zone on Mars that could brook Martian microbes if they ever live .

oddment Confirms That Mars Was Once up to of Harboring Life
To date Curiosity ’s odometer stands at nearly five kilometers and she has taken over 118,000 figure . The robot has about another five km to go to reach Mount Sharp .
Meanwhile , NASA ’s sisterOpportunityrover is exploring clay mineral outcrops by thesummit of Solander Pointon the opposite side of Mars at the commencement of her second Decade investigating theRed Planet ’s closed book .

This articleoriginally appearedat Universe Today and is republish here with permission .
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