iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Paul Hammond

Phil Stooke @philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Here a set of 4 maps zooms in to locate the site of the Chang'e 1 impact. I find this useful for locating things so I do it for all landers and impacts for which we have an exact location. This was my 2017 LPSC abstract on this site among others […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A set of 4 maps zooming in on the Chang'e 1 impact site.

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Phil Stooke @philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

This is the 4th set of Sojourner rover images, taking us from sol 37 to sol 60. In the middle of the sequence the rover got itself in a very awkward position up on some rocks, and it took some considerable care and expertise to get it off safely. The T for […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

More images in the Sojourner story. These run from sol 37 to sol 60 and cover a lot of driving and a lot of science, especially the APXS composition measurements.

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Phil Stooke @philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

Sojourner's sols 24-36 in the same format. I made the rover stand out by increasing contrast relative to the rest of each image. For scale in these figures, Sojourner is 63 cm long, 48 cm wide and 28 cm high. W denotes wheel abrasion experiments, which […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Another set of composite images showing the activities of Pathfinder's little rover Sojourner.

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2026

Meanwhile on Mars: Curiosity Rover checks out this interesting rock located just in front of one of its six wheels. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk #Curiosity #MSL #MarsRover #NASA #Science #Space #Exploration #Solarocks #Mars #JPL #Meteorite #MeteorWrong

A detailed image of a dark-toned rock on Mars, highlighting its smooth polished features, compared with the light-tan colour of the weathered sedimentary bedrock that lie beneath the dark float rock. Could this be a meteorite, or just a dark coloured rock from higher up Mount Sharp?

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

Meanwhile on Mars: For those that have been following along. After several days of robotic arm gymnastics, the slab of rock that was stuck on Curiosity Rover's drill bit has finally been liberated. Animated HazCam GIF from Sol 4883 (April 2, 2026) Shows a pair […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/04/2026

This was not on my Mars Bingo Card. Curiosity rover lifts the rock that is stuck to its drill, gives it a shake which liberated some loose material, but fails to dislodge the errant rock on Sol 4881 (April 30, 2026). The team has an option to eject the drill […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 29/04/2026

Meanwhile in Gale Crater. In this animated GIF we can see dust cascading from the rock that appears to have been lifted by Curiosity's drill bit. The timestamps show the 9 HazCam images were acquired over 15 minutes on Sol 4879 (April 28, 2026). I'm assuming […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 26/04/2026

Meanwhile on Mars: Did Curiosity Rover's just lift a rock after drilling into it? Here's a short animation of its drilling operation with timestamps on front HazCam images from Sol 4877 (April 26, 2026) The first subframe image shows the drill above the target […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2026

How time flies.... 3 years! Ingenuity during its 26th flight on Mars (April 19, 2022)

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/03/2026

RE: social.beachcom.org/@nasa/116209184… What has Curiosity been up to in the previous week inside Gale Crater on the planet Mars. Read the latest blog written by William Farrand, a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute. #Curiosity #MSL #MarsRover #NASA […]

fosstodon.org

Original post on fosstodon.org

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/03/2026

Meanwhile on Mars: Perseverance rover completed a 15 minute drive to site 87.0 on March 5, 2026 (Sol 1792). This post-drive roughly processed image was assembled / cropped from 6 post-drive NavCam tiles. I'll add the drive details and updated location map in […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

$A composite image acquired by one of the mast-mounted cameras on Perseverance Rover that is exploring the planet Mars. The image looks slightly down onto the front of the Mars rover and its workspace just in front of the rover. The workspace contains a craggy and dark grey rocky outcrop. The exposed rock surfaces contain several fractures, with its near horizontal surfaces being peppered by a fine deposit of ocher coloured dust. Beyond the workspace are several other dark rocky outcrops that are surrounded by a mix of regolith (small crushed rock fragments, sand and pebbles). The view stretches to the horizon and the rolling hills that are northeast of the rover's current location, just outside Jezero crater. On the rover's dusty deck we can observe the stowed robotic arm. At the end of the arm is a turret that contains a large percussion drill, a small tank of compressed gas, as well as a number of science instruments and cameras. The rover arrived at this location after a short drive on March 5, 2026 (mission Sol 1792) it has been exploring this region for just over 5 earth years.$

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Martin Rundkvist @mrundkvist.archaeo.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/02/2026

#Tesla refuses to come to terms with the Swedish labour unions. As a result, nobody is willing to link up their charging stations in the small Swedish town of Vansbro. But Tesla has found a solution. They've bought some diesel generators. 🙄 […]

archaeo.social

Original post on archaeo.social

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Matthew Dockrey @attoparsec.clacks.link.ap.brid.gy · 02/02/2026

Well over a year after I started learning stained glass to make a light fixture, it's done! youtu.be/EarBm4tfMXs

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/01/2026

Curiosity Mars rover used LED lights on the end of its robotic arm to create this rare nighttime view of the Red Planet’s surface on December 6, 2025, the 4,740th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. Catch the full details on this link […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

The LED lights are part of the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, a camera on the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. The image was captured by the Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on the rover’s mast, or “head.” On occasion, scientists have used MAHLI’s LED lights to illuminate areas deep in shadow during the day, such as the insides of drill holes and the inlet tubes leading to instruments in the rover’s belly. Much earlier in the mission, the Curiosity team used these LEDs at night to look for layering or other features in drill hole walls that would help them understand a rock’s composition. Since the mission changed its drilling method, the drill holes have come out too rough and dusty to see any such details.

After drilling a rock target nicknamed “Nevado Sajama” on November 13, 2025 (Sol 4,718), the team noticed the drill hole walls were smooth enough to try looking for layers and decided to try illuminating the drill hole at night. This drill hole was made during Curiosity’s exploration of a region full of geologic formations called boxwork, which crisscross the surface for miles and look like giant spiderwebs when viewed from space.

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/01/2026

Curiosity Rover is back with a set of post solar-conjunction images from sol 4784 (January 20, 2026). The images are now available on the mission image server. This image was taken by one the rover's hazard avoidance cameras. It was acquired during mission Sol […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Liam Proven @lproven.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 10/01/2026

Discord is running a survey about integrating generative "AI" into its service. Please do go tell them what you think. discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form…

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

James Smith 💾 @floppy.org.uk · 31/12/2025

My sister and @pauljrobinson have these coasters, and I find it *so hard* to put things on them. Something in my lizard brain rebels.

A silicone coaster realistically shaped and decorated like a 3.5” floppy disk.

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 17/12/2025

A small selection of overlapping MAHLI images from sol 4750 (December 17, 2025) assembled in MS-ICE of an interesting feature in Curiosity rover's current workspace. Additional focus stacked images are likely still on the rover, but I think these few cover the […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/12/2025

One can never have enough Selfies from Mars! This one from Perseverance Rover was acquired on December 12, 2025 (Sol 1711) using the SHERLOC WATSON camera. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech #Perseverance #MarsRover #M2020 #NASA #science #Space #Exploration #Solarocks #Mars #Selfie #JPL #SHERLOC #WATSON

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Ian Robinson @ianrobinson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/12/2025

There are some excellent close-up images of the cameras on the Mars Perseverance rover in the latest Mars Guy video. The images were captured with the camera on the arm for diagnostic purposes. 4-minute video: youtu.be/BayZboySmEg #Mars #Science #PerseveranceRover

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Mastodon @mastodon.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2025

Elon Musk and X are once again proving why institutions should never rely on corporate-owned, centrally-controlled social media platforms to reach their people. www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0589g0dq…

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/12/2025

Checking out some interesting rocks with Perseverance's MastCam-Z camera during the morning of mission Sol 1703 (December 4, 2025). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS #Perseverance #MarsRover #M2020 #NASA #science #Space #Exploration #Solarocks #Mars #mastcam-z #rocks #JPL

Panoramic view of a Mars landscape, dominated by a reddish-brown, rocky terrain. Large, dark-colored boulders are scattered across the foreground, amidst smaller rocks and fine-grained regolith. The background features a flatter, more distant landscape of similar color, suggesting a wide expanse of the Martian surface outside Jezero Crater.

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/11/2025

Perseverance rover looks back after long drive to the southwest during November 17, 2025 (Sol 1686). The traverse distance was 285m (936ft), with a climb of 8.7m (28ft), drive duration was 220 minutes. Attached is a roughly processed tiled NavCam and the drive […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

A wide view of the Martian landscape captured by one of the rover's cameras, featuring the brownish-yellow dust covered terrain, with a small distant hill topped with darker boulders in an otherwise vast, near barren landscape.

Drive: Ending on Mars Solar Day, UTC Earth Date, Sol 1686, November 17, 2025
Drive: Duration in Minutes 220.0 Minutes, 3ʰ 39ᵐ 57ˢ
Distance: Drive path: (meters / feet) 85.34 m, 936.2 ft
Distance: Drive (point-to-point) meters / feet 277.00 m, 908.8 ft
Distance: To the Landing site (point-to-point) 10.89 km, 6.8 miles
Distance: To the Helicopter (point-to-point) 5.09 km, 3.2 miles
Distance: Total traverse 38.15 km, 23.7 miles
Distance: Longest drive distance 473.92 m, 1554.9 ft
Sols / Days since landing 1,686 Mars Days, 1,732 Earth Days
Drive: Number of drives since landing 481
Elevation: Mars Geoid (beginning of drive) -1909.75 m, -6265.6 ft
Elevation: Mars Geoid (end of drive) -1901.03 m, -6237.0 ft
Elevation: Change during drive ▲ 8.71 m, ▲ 28.6 ft
Elevation: Change since landing ▲ 668.88 m, ▲ 2194.5 ft
Elevation: Lowest below landing ▼ -15.96 m, ▼ -52.4 ft
Elevation: Highest above landing ▲ 783.91 m, ▲ 2571.9 ft
Location: RMC Index (To – From) 81_0, 80_2956
Location: Landing - Easting / Northing E: 4354494.086, N: 1093299.695
Location: Beginning-of-drive Easting/Northing E: 4343742.816, N: 1093138.352
Location: End-of-drive - Easting / Northing E: 4343607.604, N: 1092896.600
Location: End-of-drive - Latitude / Longitude 18.43782669, 77.25725413
Attitude: Roll (end-of-drive) 0.13° ↺,
Attitude: Pitch (end-of-drive) 4.90° ↺
Attitude: Tilt (end-of-drive) Tilt: 4.90°
Attitude: Yaw (degrees) Yaw: 180.39°, South

Apologies as some text edited / clipped due to ALT text limit

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/11/2025

Space Shuttle Prototype Rollout (1976) (featuring the first space shuttle Enterprise) Official NASA news film from 1976 about the first public rollout ceremony of the space shuttle prototype, named Enterprise after the ship from "Star Trek". This video was created by NASA and is in the public […]

fosstodon.org

Original post on fosstodon.org

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

AstroHyde @astrohyde.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/11/2025

Announcing: AICO STELLAR SCHOLARS at York U #mastodon #fediverse help me get the word out! I have been working on this awhile so excited to launch! #astronomy #Astrodon #education Current modules focus on astronomy for students in grades 7-10, although we […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The Stellar Scholars banner, showing our telescopes with a background astrophotography image. The site is: https://stellarscholars.wixstudio.com/stellar-scholars

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 02/11/2025

Mars Guy: Episode 239. Mars is notorious for having copious amounts of dust, so when the dust cover of the highest resolution camera on Perseverance could not be closed, it seemed doomed. Here’s what’s happened after 21 months uncovered. youtu.be/awUHaXxG2m0 #Perseverance #MarsRover […]

fosstodon.org

Original post on fosstodon.org

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Phil Stooke @philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/10/2025

Some time in the 1980s, probably about 1984, before Magellan but with Pioneer Venus data and Earth-based radar, I made a hand-drawn pen and ink map of Venus on basically the same map projection. It was published in Sky and Telescope but I can't find the details - I have to dig through some dusty […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 29/10/2025

Meanwhile on Mars: A Bayer reconstructed Mast Camera Mosaic from Sol 4700 (October 26, 2025). It features a section of the rocky ridge that surrounds the shallow depression in the boxwork region on Mount Sharp, where Curiosity rover is presently stationed […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

This mosaic was assembled from overlapping mast camera images acquired by Curiosity rover, it provides a close-up of eroded Martian rock formations, showcasing uneven, layered surfaces with reddish-brown tones and scattered fragments that have tumbled from the ridge.

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 23/10/2025

Meanwhile on Mars: An uphill drive lasting ~67 minutes for Perseverance rover during mission Sol 1661 (October 22, 2025). The distance was ~44 meters due north, climbing ~9.2 meters, with an end-of-drive tilt of 18.7°. Attached is a processed rear HazCam image […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2025

9 overlapping ChemCam RMI images acquired during sol 4687 assembled into a mosaic using MS-ICE. Curiosity rover acquired additional images, but they have yet to be downlinked from the rover in the correct format on the public server. Credits […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2025

A great researcher I work with @carlysagan is looking for research funding or a remote position! It is really depressing how little funding is available to research the effects of satellite reentries... we REALLY need to get more scientists on this, because 1-5 Starlinks per day are reentering […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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sam henri gold @samhenrigold.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2025

Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge? It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door. Source code and a downloadable app to try it yourself […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Chuck Darwin @cdarwin.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2025

Mark Norell, Who Studied Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds, Dies at 68 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/science/…

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2025

Then & Now on Mars: Images acquired 13 years apart feature Curiosity rover's MAHLI camera with its lens cap fully closed. The first image was taken just 32 Sols after landing in 2012, the second image was taken a few days ago on Sol 4,656 (September 11, 2025 […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2025

Meanwhile on Mars: Early Morning Imaging. 16-tile Left NavCam. Sol 1622, 05:55 LMST. Friday September 12, 2025. Credits NASA/JPL-Caltech. #Perseverance #MarsRover #M2020 #NASA #science #Space #Exploration #Solarocks #Mars

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2025

A rather special RMI telephoto mosaic (10 images from Curiosity rover) looking towards the not so distant Yardang Unit. We've been driving towards that unit for many years, but this view is really nice. I'm assuming the lack of suspended dust in the atmosphere […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Phil Stooke @philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2025

Remember Steve Squyres, PI of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity? He is now the chief scientist for Blue Origin. I'm sure he would like to have a few interesting things on the lander, but there's no word yet. Enough cameras to create a full panorama would be nice, even better if it could be […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2025

Wheel tracks and what appears to be distant clouds seen in this composite image taken by Perseverance rover. The base images were acquired after a drive to the southeast of close to 202 meters during sol 1595 (August 15.2025). The image was assembled / cropped […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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Reposted by Paul Hammond

Ian Robinson @ianrobinson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2025

There are some fantastic images from the surface of Mars in the latest Mars Guy video. As the Perseverance rover tries and fails to drive up a steep slope. 4.5-minute video: youtu.be/7F9ETJJPT6I #Mars #PerseveranceRover #PlanetaryScience #Geology

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025

I think I played all of Doom & Tomb Raider :) Happy Days

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Paul Hammond @paulhammond51.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2025

Perseverance Rover at 'Falbreen': The rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture this 360-degree panorama of an area nicknamed "Falbreen" on May 26, 2025 (Sol 1516) Ninety-six separate images were stitched together to make the panorama. Check out the 3 full […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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