Post-drive 4-tile NavCam mosaic looking Northeast after the drive.
The rover has returned to its notional path, having driven away from ‘Dox Castle’. The terrain on the path is similar to what we see in this image, so we may encounter a degree of wheel slip and deeper tracks. That will usually result in shorter drives.
I’ll post the map and drive data in separate posts
Beautifully processed by James Sorenson. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/James Sorenson
edit: fixed typo
You say spoiling but we get to see a Martian dust storm. Thats pretty rad.
It is a very special view, but if not for the regional dust storm we are experiencing, we’d have a clear view of the crater floor where we landed and some of the areas we visited since landing. We’d even be able to see the Mars helicopter with the MastCam-Z cameras, granted it would only be a a few pixels across as it’s close to 2 kilometers away (1.23 miles) still sat atop a sandy ripple in Neretva Vallis :) I hope the dust storm subsides before we drive over the crater rim, as the views will be memorable.
I’ve seen dust storms before - the largest ones, the global ones, even through backyard telescopes. If you’re working right on the surface, they’re not fun.
100% agreed… Ingenuity should still be gathering data and the occasional images down in Neretva Vallis. Weather permitting it should do that for many years to come. A severe dust storm could dramatically reduce the output from its small solar array to a point where its heaters would not have sufficient power to prevent damage to its batteries and sensitive electronics.