Sols 4527-4528: ‘Boxwork Ahoy!’

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025

We’re back in our standard “touch and go” plan regime today, where we sandwich a midday remote science block between morning-APXS and afternoon-MAHLI contact science arm blocks. We had our first late-slide 9 a.m. PDT start in quite a while due to our “isolated nominal” plan on Monday! This meant the whole team was ready and “patiently” (read: not-so-patiently) waiting for our drive data to come down around 8:40 this morning. Thankfully, everything we were waiting for came down to Earth and told us Curiosity was right where we wanted her to be! The planning begins…

Sol 4527 contains most of our activities in this plan. We start off about 10:00 local Gale time with a DRT and APXS analysis of contact science target “Tamarack Valley,” a rough but brushable bedrock target in our workspace. We leave the arm unstowed (and out of the way) for our remote science block spanning the hours of about 12:35-13:45. That block starts with a large, 76-frame stereo Mastcam mosaic covering the boxwork structures to the west while ChemCam’s instrument cools down to allow for LIBS.

After Mastcam is done, ChemCam shoots their LIBS on a rougher bedrock target named “Aguanga,” and an RMI mosaic of the boxwork structures included in the Mastcam mosaic. About 14:00 local time, MAHLI finishes the contact science with a full suite of Tamarack Valley (25-centimeter, 5-centimeter stereo, and 1-centimeter images). Then we drive! Hopefully about 30 meters closer (about 98 feet) to the boxwork structures for our weekend plan. 

Curiosity takes the second sol easier with some Navcam dust-devil and horizon movies, along with a rover-decided LIBS target at our new location to start off science decisions for Friday.

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Back to Earth

The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is pictured backing away from the International Space Station shortly after undocking on April 19, 2025. Three hours later, the spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan, returning astronaut Don Pettit and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner to Earth.

While aboard the International Space Station, Pettit conducted hundreds of hours of scientific investigations, including research to enhance on-orbit metal 3D printing capabilities, advance water sanitization technologies, explore plant growth under varying water conditions, and investigate fire behavior in microgravity, all contributing to future space missions.

Image credit: NASA/Jonny Kim

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Monika Luabeya

President Trump’s FY26 Budget Revitalizes Human Space Exploration

The Trump-Vance Administration released toplines of the President’s budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday. The budget accelerates human space exploration of the Moon and Mars with a fiscally responsible portfolio of missions.

“This proposal includes investments to simultaneously pursue exploration of the Moon and Mars while still prioritizing critical science and technology research,” said acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro. “I appreciate the President’s continued support for NASA’s mission and look forward to working closely with the administration and Congress to ensure we continue making progress toward achieving the impossible.”

• Increased commitment to human space exploration in pursuit of exploration of both the Moon and Mars. By allocating more than $7 billion for lunar exploration and introducing $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs, the budget ensures America’s human space exploration efforts remain unparalleled, innovative, and efficient.
• Refocus science and space technology resources to efficiently execute high priority research. Consistent with the administration’s priority of returning to the Moon before China and putting an American on Mars, the budget will advance priority science and research missions and projects, ending financially unsustainable programs including Mars Sample Return. It emphasizes investments in transformative space technologies while responsibly shifting projects better suited for private sector leadership.
• Transition the Artemis campaign to a more sustainable, cost-effective approach to lunar exploration. The SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion capsule will be retired after Artemis III, paving the way for more cost-effective, next-generation commercial systems that will support subsequent NASA lunar missions. The budget also ends the Gateway Program, with the opportunity to repurpose already produced components for use in other missions. International partners will be invited to join these renewed efforts, expanding opportunities for meaningful collaboration on the Moon and Mars.
• Continue the process of transitioning the International Space Station to commercial replacements in 2030, focusing onboard research on efforts critical to the exploration of the Moon and Mars. The budget reflects the upcoming transition to a more cost-effective, open commercial approach to human activities in low Earth orbit by reducing the space station’s crew size and onboard research, preparing for the safe decommissioning of the station and its replacement by commercial space stations.
• Work to minimize duplication of efforts and most efficiently steward the allocation of American taxpayer dollars. This budget ensures NASA’s topline enables a financially sustainable trajectory to complete groundbreaking research and execute the agency’s bold mission.
• Focus NASA’s resources on its core mission of space exploration. This budget ends climate-focused “green aviation” spending while protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and other U.S. government and commercial applications, producing savings. This budget also will ensure continued elimination any funding toward misaligned DEIA initiatives, instead designating that money to missions capable of advancing NASA’s core mission. NASA will continue to inspire the next generation of explorers through exciting, ambitious space missions that demonstrate American leadership in space.

NASA will coordinate closely with its partners to execute these priorities and investments as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Building on the President’s promise to increase efficiency this budget pioneers a focused, innovative, and fiscally-responsible path to America’s next great era of human space exploration.

Learn more about the President’s budget request for NASA:

https://www.nasa.gov/budget

-end-

Bethany Stevens
Headquarters, Washington
771-216-2606
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov

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NASA Stennis Employee Contributes to Innovative Work

Living up to, and maintaining, the standard of excellence associated with NASA is what drives Robert Williams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, Williams said he has had the opportunity to work with and be mentored by “some truly exceptional” engineers, some with careers reaching back to the Apollo era.

“I cannot overstate the vast amount of practical knowledge and experience we have at NASA Stennis,” Williams said. “We know how to get things done, and if we do not know, I can guarantee we will figure it out.”

Williams is a senior mechanical design engineer and the structures subject matter expert for the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate.

He provides technical oversight related to engineering mechanics and machine design by reviewing analysis and design packages from NASA Stennis contractors and NASA engineers for ongoing projects.

Williams also supports projects by performing analysis and creating detailed models, drawings, and system level designs, mostly at the versatile four-stand E Test Complex, where NASA Stennis has 12 active test cells capable of various component, engine, and stage test activities to support the agency and commercial companies.

In support of NASA’s Artemis campaign of returning astronauts to the Moon, Williams also has reviewed structural and pipe stress analysis for the exploration upper stage project that will test a new SLS (Space Launch System) rocket stage to fly on future Artemis missions.

He performed similar review work for Green Run testing of the SLS core stage at NASA Stennis ahead of the successful launch of the Artemis I uncrewed mission around the Moon. 

Overall, Williams has been a part of projects on every test stand throughout more than eight years with NASA and five years as a contractor. He has been tasked with solving challenging problems, both individually and as a part of teams.

There were times when he was not sure if he or the team would be able to solve the problem or address it effectively, but each time, the NASA Stennis team found a way.

“Over the span of my career, I have yet to be in a situation where the challenge was not met,” he said.

The opportunity to work with “pretty much all the major space companies in some capacity” is most interesting to Williams. “The best thing is that being a small organization within a relatively small center, there are always opportunities to develop new skills and capabilities to help fill a need or gap,” he said.

No matter the task, Williams looks forward to supporting space innovation while living up to, and maintaining, the standard of excellence associated with NASA for the benefit of all. 

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Hubble Images a Peculiar Spiral

A beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy dazzles in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe).

The name Arp 184 comes from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by astronomer Halton Arp in 1966. It holds 338 galaxies that are oddly shaped and tend to be neither entirely elliptical nor entirely spiral-shaped. Many of the galaxies are in the process of interacting with other galaxies, while others are dwarf galaxies without well-defined structures. Arp 184 earned its spot in the catalog thanks to its single broad, star-speckled spiral arm that appears to stretch toward us. The galaxy’s far side sports a few wisps of gas and stars, but it lacks a similarly impressive spiral arm.

This Hubble image combines data from three Snapshot observing programs, which are short observations that slotted into time gaps between other proposals. One of the three programs targeted Arp 184 for its peculiar appearance. This program surveyed galaxies listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as well as A Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations, a similar catalog compiled by Halton Arp and Barry Madore.

The remaining two Snapshot programs looked at the aftermath of fleeting astronomical events like supernovae and tidal disruption events — like when a supermassive black hole rips a star apart after it wanders too closely. Since Arp 184 hosted four known supernovae in the past three decades, it is a rich target for a supernova hunt.

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

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