Mars Rover Curiosity Visits ‘Cooperstown’
![The low ridge that appears as a dark band below the horizon in the center of this scene is a Martian outcrop called "Cooperstown," a possible site for contact inspection with tools on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The ridge extends roughly 100 feet (about 30 meters) from left to right, and it is about 260 feet (about 80 meters) away from the location from which Curiosity captured this view.](https://www.allotsego.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/COOPERSTOWN-ON-MARS.jpg)
MARS – The Mars Rover Curiosity just completed it’s first two-day autonomous drive on Monday, Dec. 8, and, like many tourists, stopped by Cooperstown — but it’s a Cooperstown a long way from home.
‘Cooperstown’ is NASA’s name for a rocky outcropping on Mars that bears candidates for examination with the instruments on Curiosity’s arm. These studies will help assess the geology of the main destination for the rover, an outcropping known as Mount Sharp.
“What interests us about this site is an intriguing outcrop of layered material visible in the orbital images,” said Kevin Lewis of Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., a participating scientist for the mission who has been a leader in planning the Cooperstown activities. “We want to see how the local layered outcrop at Cooperstown may help us relate the geology of Yellowknife Bay to the geology of Mount Sharp.”
For more information on the Mars Rover’s mission, click here.