Curiosity’s mission is to assess the past habitability of Mars and how it may have changed over time. The landing site in Gale crater was selected because the crater contains a 5,500 m (18,000 ft) high mountain of layered sedimentary rock known as Aeolis Mons (also known informally as Mt. Sharp). Evidence from orbital datasets prior to landing suggested that the layers of Aeolis Mons captured a global chemical transition from an environment that is more amenable to life, indicated by clay minerals, to a dryer, harsher climate in which water was more acidic, indicated by sulfate minerals. The site was also chosen because the crater floor just north of Aeolis Mons is a broad flat plain, formed by sediment washed down from the northern crater rim. This plain, called Aeolis Palus, was a safe place to land the rover before beginning the grueling traverse up Aeolis Mons.

USGS Astrogeology has a long history of collaborating with NASA to provide trusted data to help select landing sites. Most recently, we provided extremely precise data used by the Perseverance rover to safely land in Jezero crater. Curiosity used an earlier version of the “skycrane” landing system that lacked built-in navigation, but Astrogeology also provided topographic data and image mosaics of the landing sites to make sure they were safe for the rover. Astrogeology also collaborated with the THEMIS instrument team to provide thermal infrared maps of potential sites, which Astrogeology scientist Robin Fergason used to estimate how rocky or sandy the terrain was at each of the finalist sites.

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Astrogeology scientist Ken Herkenhoff is a member of the ChemCam and Mastcam/MAHLI/MARDI instrument teams on Curiosity, and often serves as chair of the mission’s Science Operations Working Group (SOWG), the team of scientists responsible for deciding what the rover will do on a given day. Herkenhoff has been involved in every NASA Mars rover mission, and recalls hearing about how Curiosity would land:

“I remember when I first heard about the "sky crane" landing method, I thought it was crazy and very risky.  So I was pretty nervous on MSL landing day 10 years ago, but I reminded myself that the Mars Pathfinder airbag landing system, in which the spacecraft bounced high in the martian air many times before settling on the surface, also seemed crazy at the time.  But the JPL engineers made it work 3 times, for Pathfinder and both of the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.  That gave me some confidence that the MSL sky crane would work as well, but of course it's always scary the first time a new landing system is used.  I was very relieved when the MSL landing was successful!  I am very fortunate to have been involved in all of these successful Mars missions.”

USGS scientist Ryan Anderson was an early advocate for the Gale crater site and his work, along with that of many others interested in the site, helped lead to the site’s selection:

“It has been such a wonderful experience to study a site so carefully from orbit, and then to see it ‘in person’ through the eyes of the rover. We get to see what we were right (and wrong) about and discover things that we could never have known without being there on the ground. I am still astonished every day by the spectacular geology of Gale crater.” 

Anderson is a member of the ChemCam science team on Curiosity and works on improving the accuracy of chemistry measurements made by the instrument. He also serves as Payload Downlink Lead (PDL), analyzing data from ChemCam as it is returned to Earth, and as Keeper of the Plan (KOP), helping the science team plan their activities for the day. 

Astrogeology scientist Lauren Edgar is a sedimentologist whose work has been integral in interpreting the history of water at Gale crater. Her analysis of the Shaler outcrop early in the mission proved that it was formed by sustained, flowing water, and her more recent work details the stratigraphy of Vera Rubin Ridge and finds that it is made of sediment deposited in a lake. Like Herkenhoff, Edgar often serves as SOWG chair for the mission, and serves as a Long-Term Planner as well. Edgar is a participating scientist on the mission and will be one of several scientists involved in a NASA organized panel discussion today at 11am Pacific time to commemorate Curiosity’s 10th anniversary.  

"Every day on Mars we have the opportunity to see something that no one has ever observed before on another planet," Edgar said. "It’s so exciting that we’re at a stage in our science that we can find evidence for ancient lakes, streams, deltas, and dune fields, and investigate these deposits with the same level of detail available in studies on Earth."

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Kristen Bennett is another Astrogeology scientist playing a leading role in the Curiosity mission. In addition to frequently serving as Payload Uplink Lead, sending commands to the MAHLI instrument, she co-led the scientific investigation of Glen Torridon, the valley containing clay minerals that were detected from orbit and which were one of the major motivations for landing at Gale crater. The results from Glen Torridon show that the rocks are indeed clay rich sediments deposited in lakes and rivers, and that they also contain diverse organic molecules. 

“I did not join the MSL team until about 4 years into the mission, but I still remember being a new graduate student and gathering to watch the seven minutes of terror and celebrating the successful landing. Those moments stick with you.  And now I am helping to plan the rover's path for the next few years, aiming to go higher on Mt. Sharp than I ever could have hoped!”

The Curiosity mission regularly shares updates written by team members involved in planning the rover’s activity for the day. When these updates are written by one of our scientists here at Astrogeology, we also post them here on our news feed, so you can follow along as the rover continues to explore the spectacular geology of Aeolis Mons!

“It is very inspiring to see Curiosity still going strong after 10 years of roving,” Bennett said. “I am so impressed by and grateful for all the engineers that built the hardware and software that continues to work well after 10 years on another planet!”