Mars24 has been upgraded for Curiosity

Mars24 is a Java application written by Robert Schmunk at Goddard. It is the application that I turn to each time I write my monthly What's Up article to figure out Mars' season (Ls 150°, late winter in the southern hemisphere) and the current sol on Opportunity (the wee hours of sol 3032). I also use it to convert back and forth between Earth dates and Mars landed mission sols. Once Curiosity launched successfully, I hassled Schmunk once every few months to ask him if he planned to update Mars24 for Curiosity. I'm sure I'm not the only one!

I'm delighted to report that at the eleventh hour, Schmunk has released Mars24 version 7, a new-and-improved version that shows us that it's presently afternoon at Gale crater, on sol -2. On a map it shows you, by default, the locations of Curiosity (MSL) and Opportunity (MERB), the sub-solar point (yellow dot) and the sub-earth point (blue dot). But you can select options to show you maps in all kinds of different projections, or the locations of any lander at any date in Martian exploration history, and on into the future. It's incredibly handy, and I thank Schmunk and Goddard for supporting it!