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Sols 4539-4540: Back After a Productive Weekend Plan

A grayscale photograph of Martian terrain in front of the Curiosity rover shows flat, rough ground covered in gravel, with large, polygonal sections of rock on the surface separated by shallow gouges in the soil. The bottom of the frame shows parts of the rover, running from the middle left edge to the lower right corner of the image, including part of its robotic arm which carries a nameplate imprinted with “Curiosity” outlined in white, all-capital letters, and to the right of that a line drawing of the rover.

NASA’’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on May 11, 2025 — Sol 4537, or Martian day 4,537 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 22:26:23 UTC.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University

Contents

Sols 4539-4540: Back After a Productive Weekend Plan Share Details Related Terms Explore More Sols 4536-4538: Dusty Martian Magnets Sols 4534-4535: Last Call for the Layered Sulfates? (West of Texoli Butte, Headed West)Sols 4532-4533: Polygon Heaven Discover More Topics From NASA Mars All Mars Resources Rover Basics Mars Exploration: Science Goals

Earth planning date: Monday, May 12, 2025

Curiosity was back to work Monday, picking up where it left off from Friday’s plan. Tosol’s plan started with an APXS analysis on the target “Jeffrey Pine,” though the DRT was kept on the sidelines this time. Curiosity then proceeded to image Jeffrey Pine and “Canyon Oak” with MAHLI while simultaneously executing a DAN passive analysis. Mastcam documented “Santiago Peak” as well as Canyon Oak, prior to a ChemCam 5-spot analysis on the latter. Following a drive of about 30 meters (about 98 feet), Curiosity rounded out the two-sol plan with untargeted and environmental monitoring activities, including Navcam dust-devil and cloud-shadow movies.