NASA’s Curiosity rover has entered a Martian valley covered by an astonishing “sea” of tiny polygon-shaped fractures. The honeycomb patterns, each only a few inches wide, stretch across the landscape and even wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has entered a Martian valley covered by an astonishing “sea” of tiny polygon-shaped fractures. The honeycomb patterns, each only a few inches wide, stretch across the landscape and even wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte.

  • tb_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    58 minutes ago

    The rover’s speed is measured in meters per day I’m pretty sure, it goes at a very slow pace.

    Edit: yes. Given tests I imagine it frequently travels a lot less than that.

    Based on variables including power levels, terrain difficulty, slippage and visibility, the maximum terrain-traverse speed is estimated to be 200 m (660 ft) per day by automatic navigation.

    Further edit: NASA has an interactive map of its journey so far, neat.
    https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity/location-map/