Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Scientist and APXS team member, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Earth planning date: Monday, Dec. 22, 2025
As we all prepare for the holiday season here on Earth, we have been planning a few last activities before Curiosity and the team of scientists and engineers take a well-deserved, extended break. This holiday season coincides with conjunction — every two years, because of their different orbits, Earth and Mars are obstructed from one another by the Sun; this one will last from Dec. 27 to Jan. 20. We do not like to send commands through the Sun in case they get scrambled, so we have been finishing up a few last scientific observations before preparing Curiosity for its quiet conjunction break.
As part of a pre-planned transect between our two recent drill holes, “Valle de la Luna” (hollow) and “Nevado Sajama” (ridge), we successfully completed chemical analyses and imaging of a ridge wall. These observations were acquired to document changes in texture, structure, and composition between the two drill holes and to elucidate why we see such contrasting physical features of resistant ridges and eroded hollows in this region. Mastcam and ChemCam also imaged a little further afield. ChemCam continued observations o …