A few weeks ago, NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off from hard work while the agency waited out Mars solar conjunction, a natural phenomenon that could interfere with their communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. In a first for the rover, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, capturing its own shifting shadow on the landscape as the sun moves from dawn to dusk. It held onto the images until after the conjunction ended on November 25.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity was given instructions to record the 12-hour sequences a few days before the conjunction began in mid-November, according to NASA. The idea was to see if it could catch any weather events that might crop up. That didn’t end up happening, but the images Curiosity snapped on November 8 are still pretty enchanting. They’ve been pieced together in two videos showing the view from its front and rear Hazcams.

Curiosity’s Hazcams are normally used to help drivers avoid terrain that could be dangerous to the rover. But with the rover parked ahead of its pause in duties from November 11 to November 25, the cameras were freed up for a bit of sight-seeing. Curiosity recorded from its position at the base of Mars’ Mount Sharp from 5:30AM to 5:30PM. It and the other Mars explorers have since resumed their normal activities.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

A few weeks ago, NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off from hard work while the agency waited out Mars solar conjunction, a natural phenomenon that could interfere with their communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. In a first for the rover, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, capturing its own shifting shadow on the landscape as the sun moves from dawn to dusk. It held onto the images until after the conjunction ended on November 25.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity was given instructions to record the 12-hour sequences a few days before the conjunction began in mid-November, according to NASA. The idea was to see if it could catch any weather events that might crop up. That didn’t end up happening, but the images Curiosity snapped on November 8 are still pretty enchanting. They’ve been pieced together in two videos showing the view from its front and rear Hazcams.

Curiosity’s Hazcams are normally used to help drivers avoid terrain that could be dangerous to the rover. But with the rover parked ahead of its pause in duties from November 11 to November 25, the cameras were freed up for a bit of sight-seeing. Curiosity recorded from its position at the base of Mars’ Mount Sharp from 5:30AM to 5:30PM. It and the other Mars explorers have since resumed their normal activities.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s campaign to gather names for a sort of “message in a bottle” that will fly with its upcoming Europa Clipper mission closes after this weekend, so if you were hoping to participate but haven’t yet made your submission, you’d better hurry up and do so. The signatures will accompany a poem written for Europa by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, which will be engraved in Limón’s handwriting on a metal plate attached to the spacecraft. Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, is thought to have a deep saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust — and there, the conditions could be suitable for microbial life.

To enter the Message in a Bottle campaign, you just need to go to NASA’s website and fill out a short signup form. The deadline is tomorrow, December 31. So far, more than 2.4 million people have added their names. According to NASA, the names of everyone who participated will be stenciled in tiny, tiny letters onto microchips using an electron beam that can create lines of text smaller than 1/1000th the width of a human hair. These microchips will be affixed to the plate containing the poem.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October 2024, and it’ll be another six years from then before it reaches Jupiter’s orbit. Once there, it’ll investigate Europa’s potential habitability through a series of close flybys. Europa is one of an estimated 95 moons circling Jupiter and among the longest known to humanity. 

NASA’s campaign to gather names for a sort of “message in a bottle” that will fly with its upcoming Europa Clipper mission closes after this weekend, so if you were hoping to participate but haven’t yet made your submission, you’d better hurry up and do so. The signatures will accompany a poem written for Europa by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, which will be engraved in Limón’s handwriting on a metal plate attached to the spacecraft. Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, is thought to have a deep saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust — and there, the conditions could be suitable for microbial life.

To enter the Message in a Bottle campaign, you just need to go to NASA’s website and fill out a short signup form. The deadline is tomorrow, December 31. So far, more than 2.4 million people have added their names. According to NASA, the names of everyone who participated will be stenciled in tiny, tiny letters onto microchips using an electron beam that can create lines of text smaller than 1/1000th the width of a human hair. These microchips will be affixed to the plate containing the poem.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October 2024, and it’ll be another six years from then before it reaches Jupiter’s orbit. Once there, it’ll investigate Europa’s potential habitability through a series of close flybys. Europa is one of an estimated 95 moons circling Jupiter and among the longest known to humanity.