Glenelg, Mars


Glenelg, Mars is a location on Mars near the Mars Science Laboratory landing site in Gale Crater marked by a natural intersection of three kinds of terrain.

Name

The location was named Glenelg by NASA scientists for two reasons: all features in the immediate vicinity were given names associated with Yellowknife in northern Canada, and Glenelg is the name of a geological feature there. Furthermore, the name is a palindrome, and as the Curiosity rover is planned to visit the location twice this was an appealing feature for the name. The original Glenelg is a village in Scotland which on 20 October 2012 had a ceremony, including a live link to NASA, to celebrate their "twinning" with Glenelg on Mars.
The trek to Glenelg will send the rover east-southeast of its landing site. One of the three types of terrain intersecting at Glenelg is layered bedrock, which is attractive as the first drilling target.

Images


Image:PIA17085-MarsCuriosityRover-TraverseMap-Sol351-20130801.jpg|First-Year & First-Mile of the Curiosity rover on Mars .
Image:PIA16150 fig1-Mars Curiosity Rover-Glenelg Terrain.jpg|Curiositys view of the Glenelg Area – where three terrains merge.
Image:PIA16237-MarsCuriosityRover-BurwashRock-20121029.jpg|"Burwash" rock on Mars - as viewed by the MAHLI camera on the Curiosity rover.
Image:PIA16236-MarsCuriosityRover-EtThenRock-20121029.jpg|"Et-Then" rock on Mars - as viewed by the MAHLI camera on the Curiosity rover.
Image:PIA16550-MarsCuriosityRover-ShalerOutcrop-20121207.jpg|"Shaler" rock outcrop near the Glenelg Area on Mars - as viewed by the MastCam on the Curiosity'' rover.