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By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 7, 2026

This week was very special for the Curiosity team here on Earth as we celebrated the 14th landing anniversary. I still remember watching the buildup to the entry phase on “Eyes on the Solar System” and then I don’t remember much until I heard the words, “We are safe on Mars.” I was just too tense and nervous, but I love to re-live the moments each year when we celebrate another (Earth) year on Mars. If you want to remember it all, you can go to NASA’s interactive tool “Eyes on the Solar System” use the menu and find the Mars Science Laboratory Rover in the list of spacecraft. Curiosity launched Nov. 26, 2011, 15:02 UTC; you can wind back the clock to that day as the spacecraft leaves Earth and follow as it gradually makes its way to Martian orbit, where it meets Mars at just the right moment. Curiosity landed Aug. 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC. The big moment to me, though, is to see the joy and celebrations in the control room after landing. I have watched this video more times than I can count; it’s just too good to not remember: Curiosity Has Landed – NASA Science.

But what did we do in that very special week that marked the transition from year 14 to year 15? Of course it was business as usual for the rover while many of us exchanged memories and also marveled at what we have found to date. If you are interested what exactly Curiosity did at the moment in time that marked the landing anniversary, we’ve got you covered — with the help of the science and engineering team at JPL in Pasadena, I can tell you that this was on Sol 4976 at 19:47 LMST on Mars, and at that very moment the rover’s arm was deployed at the target “Tunas Khasa” doing an APXS measurement.

The rover continued its way up Mount Sharp investigating the different layers of rock along the way. This climb can be quite steep and coming into Monday’s plan was no different. At one point last Friday the rover’s tilt was 24 degrees. But the engineers know exactly what Curiosity can do, so we arrived safely at our planned location coming into Monday. At this first stop of the week, the APXS measured “Tunas Khasa” and “Villarrica,” which were also imaged with our Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). More chemistry came from ChemCam investigating the targets “Lago Rupanco” and “Chulipa Punta.” ChemCam also used its Remote Micro Imager to acquire high-resolution images of targets of interest. We are specifically looking for the cross-bedding, a term geologists use to describe rock layers that tilt and intersect each other, and how the different layers of rock relate to each other. Mastcam had five different mosaics in the plan, investigating targets in the nearfield and looking into the distance, too. The targets range from layers of rocks in the walls that make up the buttes around the rover to bedrock targets in the nearfield. “La Linea” is a surface that displays signs of erosion, and “Tiraque” gives insights into the layering of the bedrock, just to name two of the Mastcam targets. Of course, the future drive direction and the future workspace​ were also imaged after the drive. In addition to the science, there were some “housekeeping” activities in the plan, too. Those were a SAM column-cleaning activity and MAHLI images of the REM UV sensor. It’s important to keep on top of these things, too!

The 46-foot (14-meter) drive put us into the perfect position in front of one of those very special places, where not only two different rock layers meet, but also where cross-bedded rocks are truncated by other layers. It is those special places that allow us – one by one – to put the pieces of the puzzle together, showing what happened here billions of years ago. One thing is clear: it involved wind, lots of wind, but also some water. As this location is an exceptionally interesting place, we will stay here through Monday and spend two planning cycles at this location.

On Friday we planned two APXS on a bedrock block in front of us – keeping in mind two others for our colleagues to plan on Monday. The two targets are “Salar de Gorbea” and “Uriondo.” MAHLI documents those two, but also has a mosaic in the plan that is one of the largest I have ever seen. It’s on the target “Tres Morros,” which is an excellent example on how exactly those different rock layers meet. The team can’t wait to see the high-resolution MAHLI images and inspect every single detail visible in them. Mastcam also was very busy, investigating representative outcrops in the nearfield and further away. Targets to especially look out for are “Laguna Del Eulogio” and “Laguna de Pozuelo,” as they image outcrops related to the changes in the rock layers and further ahead on a butte called Mishe Mokwa. You might remember the latter from many mentions previously as we were driving along and around it, and using repeated images to get stereo views, but also understand different aspects of the stratigraphy (the way rocks are layered). ChemCam looks at target “Rio Tranquilo,” which is a nodular target, possibly giving insights into the water-related part of the environments that formed those rocks. The other ChemCam target is “Rio Juncalito,” which is a cross-bedded target. ChemCam also has two RMIs in the plan, one targeting forward toward Valle Grande and the other looking at Mishe Mokwa.

Both plans contain a rich set of environmental monitoring. There are many dust-devil surveys alongside measurements of the atmospheric opacity and wind monitoring. We are also looking for clouds, and of course the RAD instrument is actively measuring the radiation environment. It rarely gets a mention here, because it sits quietly in its place within the rover, looking out to the sky and monitoring the radiation — for all those 14 years, and in fact a little longer, because it was the first instrument to be switched on after launch and already started its monitoring during the cruise phase to Mars.

Happy 14th Landing Anniversary, Curiosity!

NASA has selected four companies to provide payload processing facilities under the Spacecraft Processing Operations Contract on‑ramp provision. The provision enables qualified providers to offer commercial payload processing services for agency missions launching from multiple locations where capabilities were not available at the time of the initial contract award.

Contract awardees are:

• All Points Logistics LLC
• Blue Origin LLC
• Firefly Aerospace
• L3Harris Technologies Inc.

Through the contract, NASA procures facilities and services required to perform prelaunch processing of spacecraft and associated rocket hardware for delivery to the launch pad.

The Spacecraft Processing Operations Contract is a multiple-award, commercial, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle that has an aggregate ceiling price of $100 million with an ordering period through Feb. 1, 2033.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the contract. The program works with private industry, mission, and international partners to launch science payloads ranging from small satellites with colleges and universities to NASA’s highest-priority missions.

For more information about NASA’s launch services, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/lsp

-end-

Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov

Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov

A NASA-funded air pollution monitoring network has provided one of the most detailed long-term views yet of the role of black carbon, or soot produced by fires, diesel vehicles, and other combustion sources, in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The detailed measurements show how pollution changes by time of day and season, including increases associated with rush-hour traffic and holiday celebrations. The findings are relevant to cities around the world, including in the United States.

In a new paper published in ES&T: Air, scientists analyzed data collected throughout Addis Ababa between 2022 and 2025 from 10 air-quality monitoring sites deployed by NASA’s Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) project.

The research comes as Ethiopia is taking steps aimed at improving air quality. In 2024, the country became the first in the world to ban the import of internal combustion engine vehicles, while cities have been adding bike lanes and electric vehicle infrastructure. The MAIA project’s measurements provide researchers with a baseline for understanding how air quality changes over time as Addis Ababa continues to grow and evolve.

The study focuses on particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, also known as PM2.5. The 2025 State of Global Air Report, cited in the paper, estimates that exposure to PM2.5 is associated with approximately 4.9 million deaths globally each year. Among the many kinds of PM2.5, black carbon has been has been studied for its potential effects on human health.

The paper found that Addis Ababa’s three-year average PM2.5 concentration was 30 micrograms per cubic meter, which is more than three times the level of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health-based annual PM2.5 standard. The new paper cites data from MAIA’s ground sensors indicating that average black carbon levels in Addis Ababa were approximately four to nine times higher than those measured in the three U.S. metropolitan areas the mission is monitoring.

“To our knowledge, this is the first long-term, multisite study of continuous PM2.5 and black carbon measurements in Ethiopia,” said Sina Hasheminassab, a coauthor of the paper and MAIA’s deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Many rapidly growing cities have limited long-term monitoring, so these measurements provide an important baseline for understanding how pollution changes across space and time.”

The composition and sources of PM2.5 can differ substantially between cities, depending on their local geography, traffic, industries, and more. Desert cities, for example, may have more dust, while those near coal-fired power plants may have higher concentrations of sulfate. Long-term surface measurements remain limited in many parts of the world.

NASA is supporting MAIA’s air pollution research in a dozen metropolitan areas around the globe, including three in the U.S.: Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Boston. The mission consists of a ground-based network of sensors already in operation as well as a space observatory, which uses a JPL-built camera that will be launched by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) on an ASI satellite no earlier than late 2027.

The camera is designed to identify different types of PM2.5 aerosols based on how they reflect light, making it possible to map particle concentrations over each city that the mission studies. Mounted on a gimbal, the camera captures data from multiple angles using JPL-pioneered technologies that make particles stand out more prominently against the surface background to provide valuable information about their shape and size.

The MAIA mission is the first NASA project to include public health researchers among a space mission’s team. These researchers will use MAIA’s PM2.5 concentration maps alongside health data to study potential relationships between different particle types and health outcomes. By developing a better understanding of particulate matter pollution, researchers can potentially advance how air quality is studied and managed.

“This paper shows how valuable the air sensor data is on its own, but combining the sensor network and satellite observations will be a game-changer,” said, Kyan Shlipak, the paper’s lead author, who worked on the research while interning at JPL.

Tracking black carbon

The greater Addis Ababa urban area is home to nearly 6 million people, and according to United Nations projections, that figure is expected to surpass 10 million by 2050.

“It’s a cosmopolitan city with many international communities,” said Araya Asfaw of Addis Ababa University, a coauthor of the paper and the MAIA project’s lead Ethiopian collaborator. “Think of it as Africa’s version of Brussels, where the European Union is based.”

“Even at night, when traffic dies down, you see high emissions from the burning of charcoal and other fuels,” Asfaw said.

The MAIA sensor network detected increases in black carbon during two major holidays in Addis Ababa that involve bonfires and was able to distinguish between particles originating from the fires and those from fossil fuel combustion. The findings demonstrate how detailed measurements can help researchers identify different sources of particulate matter and better understand how air quality varies across a city and over time.

To learn more about MAIA, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/maia/

2026-056

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Community of Practice for Education (SCoPE) – part of the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) Program portfolio – enables Earth and Space Science and Engineering Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – especially NASA-funded SMEs – to efficiently and effectively share their science with support from SciAct education experts. 

In Summer 2026, NASA SCoPE partnered with Arizona State University’s Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment (FORCE) Summer School to help seven undergraduate student interns build the science communication skills needed to share their research with a variety of audiences. FORCE is a world-class laboratory that uses high-pressure experimental equipment to recreate the extreme conditions found deep within Earth and other planetary bodies, enabling researchers to better understand how planets form, evolve, and behave under immense pressures.

As part of the Summer School, SCoPE facilitated two hands-on workshops on June 25 and 26, followed by office hours the following week, to help interns translate their technical research into compelling stories for non-expert audiences. The training focused on identifying the central themes of their work, developing clear and engaging messages, planning effective visitor interactions, and thinking through the logistics of public engagement. Interns also received guidance on preparing both their research posters and individual outreach stations.

The training culminated in two complementary outreach experiences. The first was the FORCE Open House, which welcomed approximately 50 members of the general public for an inside look at the laboratory. Visitors toured the facility, met the research team, explored the specialized equipment used to simulate the interiors of Earth and other planets, and interacted with interns at themed outreach stations designed to explain the science behind the experiments in accessible, engaging ways.

At the second event, a poster session for ASU faculty, staff, and students, the interns presented their research, providing an opportunity to discuss their scientific findings with members of the university community and receive feedback on their presentations.

By integrating science communication training into the Summer School experience, NASA SCoPE helped equip emerging planetary scientists with practical skills for engaging both scientific peers and public audiences. The poster session and Open House demonstrated how thoughtful communication training can strengthen researchers’ confidence while building stronger connections between cutting-edge planetary science and the communities it serves.
NASA SCoPE is supported by NASA cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0006 and helps enrich and enhance the impact of the NASA Science Activation Program portfolio, which connects learners with authentic NASA science experiences through partnerships with educators and community organizations.

Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope combine to reveal a vibrant view of 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, in this Aug. 11, 2026, image. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the Tarantula has thousands of young stars embedded in a vibrant honeycomb-like structure of gas and dust.

By studying the data from Chandra, Hubble, and Webb, combined with data from the agency’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers determined that the Tarantula may be losing energy from several sources, including hot gas escaping from the nebula.

Learn more about this image.

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ohio State Univ./J. Rodriguez et al; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds

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If you’ve been circling around Disrupt, then now’s the best time to lock in your pass and start getting ready to join the rest of the startup community gathering in San Francisco from October 13-15 at Moscone West!  

Spotify launches a new feature that gives users a chance to explain the stories and reasoning behind their favorite music. Editors will be using the feature, too, on top playlists like RapCaviar and others.