Curiosity Blog, Sols 4975-4981: Happy 14th Landing Anniversary

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission team marked Curiosity's 14th landing anniversary with a blog post by Susanne P. Schwenzer. She recalls the tense landing on Aug. 6, 2012 at 05:17 UTC after launch on Nov. 26, 2011, and points to NASA's 'Eyes on the Solar System' tool and the 'Curiosity Has Landed' video to relive the event.

During the anniversary week (Sols 4975-4981), Curiosity continued its steep climb up Mount Sharp, reaching a tilt of 24 degrees on Friday before arriving safely at the planned location. At the precise anniversary moment — Sol 4976 at 19:47 LMST — the rover's arm was deployed at target 'Tunas Khasa' for an APXS measurement. At that stop, APXS also measured 'Villarrica,' and both targets were imaged with MAHLI. ChemCam investigated 'Lago Rupanco' and 'Chulipa Punta' and used its Remote Micro Imager for high-resolution images.

The science team is focused on cross-bedding — the tilting and intersecting of rock layers — to understand stratigraphic relationships. Mastcam captured five mosaics covering nearfield and distant targets, including rock layers in the walls of buttes and bedrock targets.