Jake Matijevic (rock)

Jake Matijevic Rock

An annotated image of "Jake Matijevic" rock on Mars - a target of the APXS and ChemCam instruments on the Curiosity rover (September 22, 2012). The red dots are where the ChemCam zapped it with its laser; the purple circles indicate where the APXS targeted its view.
Feature type	Rock
Coordinates	4°35′S 137°26′E / 4.59°S 137.44°E / -4.59; 137.44Coordinates: 4°35′S 137°26′E / 4.59°S 137.44°E / -4.59; 137.44

Jake Matijevic (or Jake M) is a pyramidal rock on the surface of Aeolis Palus, between Peace Vallis and Aeolis Mons ("Mount Sharp"), in Gale crater on the planet Mars. The approximate site coordinates are: 4°35′S 137°26′E / 4.59°S 137.44°E / -4.59; 137.44.

The rock was encountered by the Curiosity rover on the way from Bradbury Landing to Glenelg Intrique in September 2012 and measures about 25 cm (9.8 in) height and 40 cm (16 in) width.

The rock was named by NASA after Jacob Matijevic (1947–2012), a mathematician-turned-rover-engineer, who played a critical role in the design of the six-wheeled rover, but died just days after the Curiosity rover landed in August 2012. Matijevic was the surface operations systems chief engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory Project and the project's Curiosity rover. He was also a leading engineer for all of the previous NASA Mars rovers including Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity.

The rover team determined the rock to be a suitable target for the first use of Curiosity's contact instruments, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the Alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS).

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