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We are back \u2026 almost, anyways. Today\u2019s parking location is very close to where we parked on sol 4253, and in an area near one of the previous contact science targets \u201cDiscovery Pinnacle.\u201d You can read in this blog post that most of the team, this blogger included, was in Pasadena for our team meeting when we were last in this area. That was July and Curiosity was about to turn 12 on Mars. Coming back is a very rare occasion and is always planned carefully. Once or twice during the last 12 years it happened because we saw something \u201cin the rear mirror.\u201d One of the examples is the target \u201cOld Soaker,\u201d where we spotted mud cracks in the images from a previous parking position, and promptly went back because this was such an important discovery. At other times it was carefully planned, such as the \u201cwalkabout\u201d at \u201cPink Cliffs,\u201d which you can watch in this video from as long back as Earth year 2015. In the past few planning cycles, it\u2019s more of the latter as we made our way from Discovery Pinnacle, where we were on sol 4253, \u201cJust passing through\u201d \u201cRussell Pass\u201d and arriving at \u201cKings Canyon,\u201d our drill location, which we reached on sol 4257. You can follow all the action of the drilling at Kings Canyon on the blogs. It took a while \u2014 it always does \u2014 because it\u2019s an activity with many steps and investigations to complete. We actually celebrated Curiosity\u2019s 12th birthday at Kings Canyon! We departed on sol 4283, came back via \u201cCathedral Peak,\u201d and are now near the Discovery Pinnacle location again. After that little walkabout through the history of (some) of Curiosity\u2019s walkabouts, especially the very last one, let\u2019s look at today\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
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