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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4867-4872: Sand Fill In Antofagasta Crater and Finding Our Next Drill Target
2026-04-22 00:33
3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4867-4872: Sand Fill In Antofagasta Crater and Finding Our Next Drill Target
Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Earth planning date: Friday, April 17, 2026
At the beginning of the week, Curiosity arrived right on target on the rim of the 10-meter (33 feet) “Antofagasta” crater.
The crater looked fresh and deep as we had hoped with a nice well-defined rim that didn’t look too eroded, but the bottom of it turned out to be filled with dark rippled sandy material that covered up the most interesting rock layers. There were a few rock exposures just above the sand cover that seemed like they might have been deep enough to have been sheltered from space radiation between the time their sediments were deposited and the crater-forming impact, but reaching them from the rim would have put the rover at such an awkward angle that we wouldn’t have been able to deliver the sample to the instruments. It’s possible that we might have been able to get into a better position by instead placing the rover on the rippled crater fill, but the chance that the rover could get stuck in all that sand made it much too high a risk. We also looked at the nearby blocks in case they could have been ejecta from the crater, but since all the rocks visible in the crater wall looked very similar to each other, there wasn’t a good way to tell which ejecta blocks might have come from the deeper layers of the crater. Because of this, the team decided against attempting to drill in or around the crater.
Luckily the rover’s workspace was rich with interesting bedrock targets including polygonal features. We planned detailed imaging of the crater and nearby buttes together with APXS geochemistry, MAHLI close-up imaging and ChemCam LIBS geochemistry of the polygon-bearing rocks on the crater rim. The plan was rounded out with our ongoing observations of the present-day Martian environment, including monitoring for dust-devil activity and regular measurements of atmospheric opacity and clouds.
Meanwhile, with the decision not to drill at Antofagasta, we started planning our next drill campaign! To plan our drill strategy in this post-boxwork section of the layered sulfate strata, we’ve been looking at the exposed layering in the buttes above us as we have been driving up through “Valle Grande.” Based on these observations, team members have mapped out a succession of varying depositional styles and levels of diagenetic activity. As we climb southwards, the rover will reach these rock layers one by one.
It’s been quite a while since we’ve drilled into the layered sulfate rocks outside the distinctive regions of the boxwork-forming unit and Gediz Vallis. The last “typical” layered sulfate drill was the “Mineral King” campaign in February/March 2024, more than 150 meters (492 feet) lower in elevation. So for our next drill campaign our goal is to measure a representative bedrock sample from the layers just above the boxworks. The Sol 4870 workspace turned out to have a drillable-looking, representative-looking block right in front of the rover so we have planned our preliminary APXS, MAHLI, and ChemCam geochemistry on the potential drill target, “Atacama,” in addition to some measurements on surrounding blocks for context. If the results look good we’ll proceed with the preload test in the next plan and look forward to a new set of drill data on Mars.
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NASA Invites Media to Jordan Artemis Accords Signing Ceremony
2026-04-21 21:30
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 9:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, April 23, at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will host Ambassador Dina Kawar of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and U.S. Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Ruth Perry for the ceremony.
This event is in person only. Media interested in attending must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, to: hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The signing ceremony will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in the Mary W. Jackson building, 300 E. Street SW.
In 2020, during the first Trump Administration, the United States, led by NASA and the State Department, joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies.
The accords introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety, transparency, and coordination of civil space exploration on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Jordan will be the 63rd country to sign the Artemis Accords.
Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords
-end-
Camille Gallo / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
New NASA Views of Earth, From (S)PACE
2026-04-21 20:54
New NASA Views of Earth, From (S)PACE
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins
NASA’s photos of Earth released during Artemis II’s mission around the moon show our planet against the dark backdrop of space. Auroras illuminated the thin atmosphere, city lights dotted the outline of continents, and brown deserts gave way to green vegetation.
Are those city lights normally this bright? What kind of clouds are swirling over the Atlantic Ocean? Is that hazy brown bit dust, or smoke, or something else?
This and another photo of Earth are the first downlinked images from the Artemis II astronauts.
To dig into the mysteries of our planet Earth, NASA has a fleet of satellites in orbit, gathering data around the clock. Join one of these satellites — the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem satellite (PACE), which launched in February 2024 — to explore its unique views of our home planet’s ocean, atmosphere, and land surfaces.
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Dust, smoke in wind
Photographs like the ones from Artemis II capture visible light. The PACE satellite’s Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), however, sees Earth across a hyperspectral range of visible, ultraviolet, near infrared and shortwave infrared light.
The ultraviolet measurements, collected daily by PACE, provided a way to track dust over the Atlantic Ocean in August 2025 as a large plume blew west from North Africa. At the same time, the data show another plume to the north, traced back to wildfire smoke in the United States and Canada.PACE tracks aerosols over the North Atlantic, revealing Saharan dust transported westward and wildfire smoke moving east. The aerosol index highlights these large-scale atmospheric transport patterns.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
Wildfires beneath blanket of smoke
As fires burned across the greater Los Angeles area throughout January 2025, PACE data tracked the size and shape of resulting particles, allowing researchers to distinguish between small, sooty smoke particles and relatively larger and brighter particles in the air, like dust and sea salt.
Instruments on PACE can capture the evolution and intensity of both the blaze and the resulting smoke.
In addition to OCI, the satellite carries two instruments called polarimeters that measure how sunlight interacts with particles in the atmosphere.
Combining specific wavelengths from OCI also allows researchers to determine a fire’s intensity, adding to other satellite observations that provide valuable information to emergency responders.PACE captures smoke and dust from the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Southern California on January 9. The true-color view shows how these plumes spread across the region and offshore, while additional PACE products reveal relative burn severity on the ground and aerosol properties in the atmosphere, including optical depth, light absorption, and dominant particle size.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
Harmful algal blooms
Data from PACE and other satellites can also help warn local managers of reservoirs, beaches, and other recreation sites of potential water quality problems.
Cyanobacteria, sometimes called blue-green algae, are a normal part of some freshwater ecosystems, like the Great Lakes. They’re unremarkable for most of the year.
But in certain conditions — typically lots of sunshine, nutrients, and warmer temperatures — the numbers can explode into a bloom that produces toxins harmful to people and animals. The PACE satellite can detect specific shades of blues, greens, and reds that indicate a bloom is in progress.PACE detects harmful cyanobacteria blooms across the Great Lakes during summer 2024. Elevated concentrations appear in regions like Green Bay, Saginaw Bay, and western Lake Erie, showing how cyanobacteria abundance changes over time.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
NASA’s PACE knows type
Blooms of tiny plant-like organisms called phytoplankton play essential roles in ocean ecosystems. A key capability of PACE is that it not only spots them from space, but its ocean color observations can identify different types of phytoplankton.
In September 2024, for example, tiny algae were thriving along the coast of Portugal, Spain, and Morocco, while two types of cyanobacteria dominated in the open ocean waters around Madeira and north of the Canary Islands.PACE resolves different types of phytoplankton in the eastern Atlantic, distinguishing communities like picoeukaryotes, Prochlorococcus, and Synechococcus. Each group occupies distinct regions of the ocean, shaped by differences in nutrient availability and large-scale ocean structure.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
Some are helpful
Ocean ecologists often sing the praises of diatoms, a relatively large phytoplankton in the center of food webs. When diatoms bloom, fisheries thrive.
Diatoms also play a key role in the global carbon cycle. They produce oxygen and transform carbon dioxide into sugars that feed the marine food web. Diatoms can sink to the ocean depths when they die, effectively capturing carbon absorbed from the atmosphere.
A diatom bloom unfolds off the Kamchatka Peninsula as spring conditions drive rapid phytoplankton growth. These blooms play an important role in ocean ecosystems, helping transfer carbon and support marine life.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
Some are harmful
Some species of phytoplankton can be deadly, especially in large numbers. In waters off South Australia, a massive bloom of the algae called Karenia began forming in March 2025, producing neurotoxins that can kill marine life and sicken beachgoers.
Researchers used PACE satellite data to track the bloom for months, picking up its characteristic fluorescence expanding from a few pixels to a region-wide bloom, impacting fishing, tourism, and other businesses.A harmful algal bloom of Karenia mikimotoi appears off the coast of South Australia. Unlike cyanobacteria, this species is identified through its fluorescence in sunlight.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
Silver linings
For some scientists sifting through PACE data, clouds block the view; for others, the clouds arethe view. Polarimeters on PACE measure the sunlight bouncing off cloud droplets in the atmosphere, taking observations from multiple angles to provide a unique kind of depth perception.
With the help of machine learning, PACE scientists can reconstruct a 3D portrait of the clouds. It’s a new way of using satellite imagery that could provide insights into how clouds and precipitation form.HARP2’s multi-angle observations reveal the three-dimensional structure of clouds along a satellite orbit. These measurements provide new insight into cloud vertical structure and variability.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins -
Ship tracks
In some PACE images of the ocean, streaks of brighter clouds indicate the path of ships below. With few sources of pollution in the open ocean, exhaust from ships changes the nature of the clouds formed. These “ship tracks” comprise smaller cloud droplets than typical marine clouds.
Ship emissions modify marine stratocumulus clouds over the North Pacific, creating bright streaks known as ship tracks. Aerosols from ships lead to smaller cloud droplets and brighter clouds.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Kel Elkins
By Kate Ramsayer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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NASA Invests in Small Businesses Innovating for Space and Earth
2026-04-21 19:23
Continuing NASA’s longtime support of American industry, the agency announced its selection of more than 30 companies to develop innovative technology through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. With these awards, NASA is investing approximately $16.3 million in seed funding of technology solutions to benefit the agency and energize the space economy.
“NASA’s support of early-stage technology, and the businesses driving these innovations, produces critical advancements for our most ambitious endeavors,” said Jason L. Kessler, program executive for NASA’s SBIR/STTR program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “We remain committed to fostering small businesses and research institutions that could support America’s presence on the Moon, advance human exploration of Mars, and improve the quality of life on Earth.”
The new awards come from two areas of NASA’s SBIR/STTR Program offering distinct benefits.
Focused on commercialization, the SBIR Ignite initiative gives small businesses a chance to successfully market their technology, even beyond the potential for use in NASA’s missions. The newly selected Phase I contracts – proposed by 15 firms representing 10 states across the country – will receive up to $150,000 to establish the merit and feasibility of their proposed innovation.
Farther down the development path are awardees announced for NASA’s STTR contracts, provided to small businesses partnered with research institutions, aiming to unlock the power and innovative thinking of the country’s universities and research centers. These Phase II awards, with 17 contracts valued at up to $850,000 each, target demonstration, and delivery of innovative technology.
These awardees will perform early-stage research and development in areas such as in-space manufacturing, advanced battery technologies, lunar landings, and advanced propulsion for air and spacecraft.
The projects receiving awards include:
Bio-inspired materials to help robots get a grip in space
SBIR Ignite Phase I award: Nanoscale Labs – Austin, Texas
Grasping objects in space is difficult for robots because traditional vacuum grippers fail in the vacuum of space and debris as well as spacecraft come in unique shapes. To solve this, Nanoscale Labs created a sprayable dry adhesive, inspired by geckos, that offers low-cost manufacturing, stronger adhesion, and self-cleaning resistance to space dust.
Learning to repair and replace in space
SBIR Ignite Phase I award: QuesTek Innovations LLC – Evanston, Illinois
To live and work in space for long durations, future astronauts may need to be welders, fixing and replacing parts as they explore low Earth orbit or deep space. But welding requires gravity, which presents a challenge in the space environment. As a solution, QuesTek Innovations created a simulation toolkit that will use computer modeling to predict how the properties of welded materials change in space and optimize the processes used.
Keeping a closer eye on lightning storms
STTR Phase II award: ASTER Labs, Inc. – Shoreview, Minnesota
Tracking lightning from low Earth orbit offers higher-resolution data but poses unique challenges to rapidly moving satellites due to their limited field of view. To address this, ASTER Labs developed the STORM Module, a software system that can automatically identify, track, and predict the movement of storms in real time. In partnership with the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, ASTER Labs will enhance and test this capability using simulated data and real lightning observations. The system will also be validated laboratory demonstrations, confirming real-time performance under realistic operating conditions. This technology aims to improve severe weather forecasting and may be adapted to track wildfires or floods.
Monitoring astronaut and earthling health with extended reality and AI
STTR Phase II award: Tietronix Software, Inc. – Houston
To support the physical and cognitive health of future astronauts, Tietronix Software and UT Austin Dell Medical School are developing a portable monitoring platform. The system uses sensors, smartphone apps, and AI to track performance and deliver therapies via an extended reality interface. Now undergoing Phase II spaceflight testing, this technology could eventually provide medical assistance to patients in remote environments on Earth.
The complete lists of selected proposals are available for this SBIR Ignite Phase I solicitation and for the STTR Phase II awards on the program’s website.
This year, NASA’s SBIR/STTR program is adopting a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) framework to increase opportunities for small businesses while enhancing agility for the agency. The 2026-2027 BAA appendices, outlining topics and subtopics for desired technology proposals, close May 21. Interested businesses and institutions are encouraged to visit the BAA Information Hub for information on applying.
NASA’s SBIR/STTR program is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. To learn more about the program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/sbir_sttr/
NASA at SXSW: Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche on Why Artemis Changes Everything
2026-04-21 19:13
On March 21, 2026, NASA’s Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche took the stage at the Space House event at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, to outline NASA’s next giant leap in human spaceflight — from low Earth orbit to the Moon, and ultimately Mars.
As NASA prepares for a new era of exploration, Wyche made clear that the agency’s Artemis program is about returning to the Moon and building the systems, partnerships, and workforce that will carry humanity deeper into space than ever before. The vision aligns with agencywide initiatives announced at NASA’s “Ignition” event, which prioritize Artemis mission planning, advance space nuclear power and propulsion research, and position the U.S. at the forefront of innovation.
Speaking to a packed audience, Wyche spoke about “Why Artemis Changes Everything” and described a rare moment of global alignment.
“This is now where we’re all committed to do one thing together,” she said, pointing to international and commercial partnerships driving Artemis forward.
Future missions will increase launch cadence, expand robotic exploration, and lay the groundwork for a sustained human presence. The Moon will become a testing ground to build a lunar base for future deep space exploration, a key step toward enabling missions to Mars.
Wyche began with the foundation of modern exploration: the International Space Station. For 25 years, astronauts have lived and worked continuously aboard the orbiting laboratory, advancing science and testing technologies critical for deep space missions.
She emphasized the station’s role as a proving ground for systems, operations, and crew performance – capabilities that will be carried forward into lunar and eventually interplanetary missions.
Low Earth orbit remains a critical domain while maintaining a strong U.S. presence to support research, technology development, and crew training.
NASA’s approach has evolved alongside that work. The agency is working with commercial companies to deliver cargo, transport crews, and develop future destinations in low Earth orbit.
“With the Artemis program, we’ve been able to keep going on what we call a Moon to Mars strategy,” Wyche said. “That’s allowing us to develop the capabilities – some that we’re testing on the International Space Station for Mars, some that we’re testing for the Moon – but it will allow us to do that together.”
Johnson Lead Public Affairs Officer Nilufar Ramji spoke during the “The Cosmos Has Entered the Chat” session, highlighting how communication and collaboration are driving this new era of exploration. As co-executive producer for NASA’s live broadcasts, Ramji leads efforts to connect global audiences with the agency’s missions.
“The different sectors that intersect with space, the storytelling aspect, but more importantly doing it collaboratively, is so important to make space accessible for everybody,” Ramji said. “That’s a really big part of NASA working with different organizations to do just that.”
She pointed to recent commercial lunar missions supported by NASA, including Blue Ghost Mission 1, which delivered NASA payloads to the Moon’s Mare Crisium, and Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, which landed near the lunar South Pole. These missions are part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, expanding access to the Moon through industry partnerships.
Companies like Axiom Space are also developing next-generation technologies, including advanced spacesuits designed for the lunar environment, while NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program is supporting the growth of privately operated destinations in orbit.
At the same time, international participation continues to grow. More than 60 countries have signed the Artemis Accords, committing to peaceful and cooperative exploration.
Wyche noted that these partnerships go beyond agreements and are reflected in real mission contributions. International partners are helping build the systems needed for sustained exploration.
Some nations are providing major elements, such as rovers and habitation systems, while others contribute research, technology, and operational support.
Expanded commercial and international partnerships will be essential to NASA’s three-phase plan to build a permanent lunar base. The effort begins with robotic landings and surface operations, advances to infrastructure supported by international partners, and ultimately establishes the framework for a sustained human presence on the Moon.
“There is much more opportunity for companies all around the world to be a part of this,” Wyche said.
Wyche explained that Artemis missions will chart a new path to the Moon, focusing on regions like the lunar South Pole and exploring approaches Apollo never pursued.
At Johnson, that future is already taking shape through analog missions like CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog), where crews live inside a 3D-printed habitat for a year to simulate the physical and psychological demands of deep space travel.
Wyche also highlighted the growing ecosystem in Texas, including Exploration Park and the Texas Space Institute, where government, industry, and academia are working together to test hardware, robotics, and surface systems. This effort supports integrated testing and rapid development of exploration systems before deployment to the Moon and beyond.
Both Wyche and Ramji emphasized that commercial partnerships help NASA go farther and move faster, expanding human space exploration. From student programs and internships to workforce development, the need to inspire and prepare the next generation is greater than ever.
“We don’t go to space just for each individual,” Wyche said. “We go because we’re trying to go for humanity, and that’s what we get to do together.”
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