Previously explored quadrants include Torridon, based on sites in Scotland, and Nontron, based on the French region where the town of Nontron can be found. This is the first quadrant theme the team has chosen related to South America. The sulfate-enriched region Curiosity is currently exploring, with its flat-topped hills and steep slopes, reminded the rover team of the “table-top” mountains in the Pacaraima range. Its current quadrant, Roraima, is named for the northernmost state of Brazil, and for Mount Roraima, the highest peak in the Pacaraima mountains, located near the border of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. Different science “targets” all require names – including targets for the rover’s cameras, the rocks on which it places its arm instruments and drill, and the surfaces it zaps with its laser instrument.Ĭuriosity’s team chooses quadrant themes based on sites of geological interest on Earth. Scientist deplete these lists of names quickly – especially with Curiosity, which has used more than 10,000 names over nearly 11 years of exploring Mars. With the Curiosity mission, scientists began using quadrant themes to organize the long lists of unofficial nicknames needed to catalog its observations, whether hills, craters, boulders, rocks, and even tiny features on rock surfaces. ![]() Martian latitude and longitude is provided around the outside of the map. Themes are chosen in advance of the rover’s arrival in a new quadrant the rover’s path couldn’t be planned until after the team knew where it landed. ![]() The yellow-tinted quadrants are areas the rover has driven through since then. The red oval indicates the landing ellipse where the rover was targeted to touch down in 2012. This map shows all the quadrant themes for NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, which is currently in the Roraima quadrant seen at the bottom.
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