NASA’s Curiosity rover captures remarkable time-lapse videos on Mars
The NASA Curiosity rover has recorded two mesmerizing time-lapse videos on Mars, showcasing its shadow moving across the Martian terrain. The videos were captured during a communication-limited period and highlight the technical aspects of the rover’s cameras while providing insights into Curiosity’s ongoing mission and exploration achievements.
The videos show the rover’s shadow moving across the Martian surface during a 12-hour sequence while Curiosity remained parked.
When the Curiosity Mars rover isn’t on the move, it works as a sundial, which was captured in two black-and-white videos recorded on November 8, the 4,002nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rover captured its own shadow shifting across the surface of Mars using its black-and-white Hazard-Avoidance Cameras, or Hazcams.
Instructions to record the videos were part of the last set of commands sent to Curiosity just before the start of Mars’ solar conjunction. During this period, the Sun is between Earth and Mars, causing radio communication interference due to plasma from the Sun. As a result, Coziness wasn’t able to receive commands for several weeks.
While stationary for two weeks during Mars solar conjunction in November 2023, NASA’s Curiosity rover used its front and rear black-and-white Hazcams to capture 12 hours of a Martian day
Rover drivers typically rely on Curiosity’s Hazcams to spot rocks, slopes, and other hazards that may be risky to traverse. Before Mars’ solar conjunction, the rover’s activities were scaled back, leading the team to use the Hazcams to capture 12 hours of snapshots for the first time, in hopes of capturing clouds or dust devils to learn more about the Red Planet’s weather.
The two 25-frame videos were captured from the front and rear Hazcams, showing Curiosity’s silhouette shifting from morning to afternoon to evening. The videos captured from the front Hazcam look southeast along Gediz Vallis, a valley found on Mount Sharp.
The second video shows the view of the rear Hazcam as it looks northwest down the slopes of Mount Sharp to the floor of Gale Crater.
The 11 years of Martian dust have settled on the lenses of the Hazcams, causing the speckled appearance of the images, especially prominent in the rear-camera video.
Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.