Mars Science Laboratory Mission Team Members

Apr 29, 2026

Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Earth planning date: Friday, April 24, 2026

There was excitement in the air as the Curiosity Science Team kicked off a drill campaign at the Atacama site to characterize the first Mount Sharp layered-sulfate bedrock since leaving the boxwork terrain.

Monday was a three-sol plan (4873-4875) where we focused on “drill sol 1” activities that included a pre-load test on our drill target as well as triage contact science. APXS assembled a set of repeated observations on the Atacama drill target, and the coordinated MAHLI images taken with different lighting will provide an opportunity to detect possible changes between the datasets.…