Mars rover Curiosity reaches sulfate-rich Mount Sharp after 10-year journey

NASA's long-serving Curiosity Mars rover has finally reached an objective it has been ambling toward since landing on the red planet a decade ago: the "sulfate-bearing unit" of Mount Sharp.  The region was first spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying the Gale Crater region of Mars since 2006. NASA …

[Dave 126]

Ten years, the poor thing, I thought, how are its wheel bearings holding up? So I had to look up how far it has trundled so far:

28.15 km (17.49 mi) on Mars as of 1 July 2022

[Sceptic Tank]

28.15 km: how are its wheel bearings holding up?

Don't worry, it's not a Ford. And the roads are better than what we have in South Africa.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 28.15 km: how are its wheel bearings holding up?

Even better, it's not a Ford on Firestone tyres..

:)

[Will Godfrey]

Re: 28.15 km: how are its wheel bearings holding up?

The roads are even betterer that the ones we have in the Mudway Towns

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow.

10 years to travel 28.15 km. I didn't know the M25 existed on Mars too!

[Zebo-the-Fat]

You spelled sulphate wrong ... again!

[imanidiot]

The Reg has switched over to newspeak (American English), which means they use the wrong spelling at times.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think calling it American English is questionable. If it is American it has little to do with English :).

[nijam]

> You spelled sulphate wrong ... again!

But at least they spelt sulfate correctly. And IUPAC agrees.

[mickaroo]

Phor Phuck's Sake...

It it's sulfate, then why isn't it fosfate?

[FuzzyTheBear]

Wow

The photo of the surroundings showing layer after layer .. what a find.

Would love to be there and take a closer look at it.

Beautifull science in action.

[Version 1.0]

Re: Wow

Absolutely, layer by layer suggests that our view of the physics of our planetary evolution is good, this doesn't prove anything yet but that fact that we can even see these pictures is marvelous! I think that we have the chance of getting to know a lot more about planetary life possibilities and the evolution of any form of life in the future.

Damn, I love science so much more that all of today's politics and political stupidity.

[I am David Jones]

Units

That’d be 2.9754 nano% of the sheep velocity.