The sulfate-enriched region Curiosity is currently exploring, with its flat-topped hills and steep slopes, reminded them of the “tabletop” mountains in the Pacaraima range.įor Perseverance, scientists chose to go with national park themes. This marked the first South American quadrant theme. That many are needed because the available names can dwindle quickly, given that Curiosity may stay in a quadrant for several months.įor Curiosity’s latest quadrant, the rover’s team chose a theme named after Roraima, the northernmost state of Brazil, and for Mount Roraima, the highest peak in the Pacaraima Mountains, located near the border of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. Once a theme is picked, hundreds of names fitting into that theme are compiled. Then, as now, team members suggested ideas for themes based on sites where they have worked or that they have a personal connection to, and they informally discussed which would be the most interesting to include, keeping in mind that various names would be memorialized in future scientific papers. These quadrants would be themed around a site of geological significance on Earth. They started by drawing a grid, making squares, or quadrants, equivalent to about 0.7 miles (1.2 kilometers) on each side. Before Curiosity landed in 2012, the rover’s team created a geological map of the landing area. Despite occasional exceptions, the Curiosity and Perseverance missions stick to nicknames based on terrestrial locations.
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