Explanation:
If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see?
If you were NASA's
Curiosity rover, just last month you would have seen
the
view from Vera Rubin Ridge, an
intriguing rock-strewn perch
on the side of
Mount Sharp.
In the
featured 360-degree panorama,
you can spin around and take in
the vista from all directions,
in many browsers, just by pointing or
tilting.
In this virtual reality view, many instruments on
the rover are labelled, including antennas, the robotic arm, and the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).
Dark sand and light rock cover the ground nearby in a mixture called lakebed mudstone.
Towering Mount Sharp is only barely visible in the distance due to airborne dust from
a
planet-wide storm just winding down.
Among its
many discoveries, Curiosity has found that the
raw ingredients for life are present on Mars.
Next on Mars will be NASA's
Insight, on target
to land in late November,
which is scheduled to deploy a
seismometer
to better study the interior of the
red planet.
