Curiosity Blog, Sols 4927–4933: Let’s Drive to That Smooth Area

By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Thursday, June 18, 2026 In the area Curiosity is currently exploring, the science team has mapped several areas with different-looking surface texture on the orbital images. If you wanted to have a look yourself at what there is to see, check the “Where is Curiosity?” map. You’ll discover different shades of orange and beige as well as more rough and more smooth-looking textures. This is what the geomorphologists in our team use to map the areas for exploration by the rover. Of course, we then supplement this all with ground-based images, including bespoke “drive direction imaging,” which is taken after each drive by the Mast Camera. Drive planning is done using a combination of all this information. So there shouldn’t be any surprises, right? On Monday the team planned three sols in preparation for a Thursday planning to account for the U.S. federal holiday weekend. The workspace turned out to be a little spiky, so we could not find an area we could DRT. APXS still found one good bedrock target, “Rio Baker,” which also had MAHLI documentation. …