Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Um, You Can See a Car on Mars

First of all, I completely stole this headline from NASA engineer Bobak Ferdowski (AKA The Mohawk Guy) on Twitter. Second, this is just a great image of the Curiosity rover sitting on Mars, including views of its tracks and where it did a wheelie or two. Plus, where the rover now sits is a very intriguing region called “The Kimberly.” Curiosity will soon whip out its drill to see if it can find hints of organic material, which could be a biomarker — the holy grail of Mars exploration.

Find out why this is such an intriguing region in this video:

Source: HiRISE

2 Replies to “Um, You Can See a Car on Mars”

  1. The MRO’s HiRise camera consistently produces the most amazing images! Once again… Wow!

    Be interesting as a follow up to see exactly where the ‘mystery flash’ (cosmic ray hit) would have been located?

  2. “where it did a wheelie or two.” Umm …. I think those are called “doughnuts”. I believe a “wheelie” is when a burst of power lifts the front end off the ground, which motorcycles are famous for, and some sports cars are also capable of doing briefly. I kind of doubt Curiosity is attempting that stunt, but perhaps her earth-bound controllers ARE getting frisky.
    Very interesting mission — to “find hints of organic material”. Apparently there is not a whole lot of optimism at this point that bio matter will be found, for that type of instrument wasn’t even included this time around. So even if trace organic materials are detected, the tests for biomarkers must await Curiosity II.

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