Bob Zimmerman has posted one of his periodic updates on the explorations of the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers on Mars:  Mars rover update: July 12, 2017 | Behind The Black.

In the five years since Curiosity landed in Gale Crater, it has moved only about 17 km but has done a lot of science along the way: Mid-2017 Map of NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Mission | NASA JPL.

NASA JPL recently held a public seminar to celebrate Five Years of Curiosity on Mars and to report on what has been learned so far, especially regarding the conditions of the young Red Planet when it appears to have had an atmosphere and large bodies of water on the surface.

Nearly five years after its celebrated arrival at Mars, the Curiosity rover continues to reveal Mars as a once-habitable planet. Early in the planet’s history, generations of streams and lakes created the landforms that Curiosity explores today. The rover currently is climbing through the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain formed from sediment brought in by water and wind. This talk will cover the latest findings from the mission, the challenges of exploration with an aging robot, and what lies ahead.

Speakers:
James K. Erickson, Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager, JPL
Ashwin R. Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist, JPL

On the left in this image is an artist’s view of how Mars might have looked in its first billion years as compared to earth on the right:

Bob Zimmerman has  posted an interesting update on what’s been happening recently with the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on Mars: Mars rover update: June 23, 2017 | Behind The Black.

Since my my May 15th update, the Opportunity science team has been acting like an expectant father. They had reached the head of Perseverance Valley in mid-May, but since then they have been gingerly pacing back and forth, studying the valley from the top and the side without entering it. The traverse map above shows their travels for the first two weeks after their arrival, but it is also a month old. While they haven’t yet posted an updated traverse map, my daily review of the images sent back each day suggests that, through June 4, they continued their pacing at the head of the valley, sometimes easing downward a bit, but never entering the valley itself.

They initially had two reasons for not entering the valley immediately. First there is fear, [continue]

Mars Rover Opportunity on Walkabout Near Rim

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This JPL video shows highlights of NASA’s missions to Mars over the past 20 years:

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