Quad Yellowknife

In any problem it is always helpful to break down a problem in to its most basic components for easier analysis. In surveys they do just that, dividing an area in to sections (I'd tell you more but 'dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a surveyor!'). On Mars at Gale crater they're doing just that, dividing the area around the Curiosity in to 'quadrangles' or quads in short form to make it easier to survey the geological make up of the area in high resolution images from orbit. Take a look at the image below:

HiRISE image divided in to quads. Curiosity is in quad 51, Yellowknife. The landing ellipse is in red. (NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona)

What in Mars is Yellowknife? It's the largest city and capital of the North Territories in Canada. 

Ok... so why Yellowknife? Canada is home to the Canadian shield, the largest area of ancient rock that you will find in North America. These form the North American craton, simply put the core of ancient rock that formed North America when it was formed more than 3.9 billion years ago. A portion of these rocks bear the name 'Yellowknife' as well so the naming idea fits. After all, Curiosity is primarily a robotic geologist. 

Why is all this necessary? Curiosity is investigating its new home form a small perspective (i.e. its landing area). The team need to know the bigger picture so that they can plan ahead as the mission unfolds. Orbiters help in that category but they can't get at the actual rocks. You need someone on the surface doing that i.e. Curiosity. So these different missions are actually working together to help scientists on the home world figure out exactly what makes up Martian geology and it helps them to build up a rich and detailed portrait of Mars' past, present.

At the moment Curiosity has completed sol 4 activities and has now begun sol 5 which is reserved for a software upgrade to something more capable of handling surface operations. So I believe there won't be much to talk about over the weekend until the upgrade is complete. But please don't go away folks! This is just the beginning of a looooooooong and wild ride!