Advertisement

8 October 2019

Sol 2549: A Slow Monday on Earth, but an Exhausting One on Mars

Despite the simplicity of today’s planning on Earth, the rover has a lot to get done before tomorrow. Let’s just hope all the activity doesn’t “exhaust” her… it’s only Monday, after all!

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



5 October 2019

Sols 2546-2547: Brrrr – Is It Frosty?

Communicating with Curiosity requires creating a plan and transmitting it through various networks, including the Deep Space Network. Sometimes, one of these networks is down, and our plan does not get to the rover.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



2 October 2019

Sol 2545: SAM Clean-Up and a Potpourri of Remote Sensing and Environmental Observations

Curiosity is continuing through its list of analysis details that take place after taking a drill sample. Today’s main activity is a SAM gas chromatograph column clean-up. Meanwhile, there is time to take environmental observations and more remote-sensing data.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



30 September 2019

Sol 2543: Dumping Dirt on its Back

This image shows nine laser pits forming a line down the “Glen Etive 2” drill hole. Shock waves from the laser impact at the lowest point cleared debris that had settled at the bottom of the hole to allow analysis of the hole wall at that depth.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



Sol 2540-2542: Go, SAM, go!

Curiosity’s late afternoon view: This image was taken by the Front Hazard Avoidance Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2536 (2019-09-25 00:12:06 UTC). It shows the same view as the image in the sols 2538-2539 blog, just in a very different light!

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



26 September 2019

Sols 2538-2539: An Intermission Filled with Remote Sensing

Today started off with the news that yestersol‘s plan did not fully complete. There was an issue in the set of planned SAM activities that resulted in those activities not completing. While we diagnose the issue, we are taking a break from drill activities and filling the plan with lots of remote science.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



24 September 2019

Sols 2536-2537: SAM Wet Chemistry Experiment

Searching for organic molecules in rocks on Mars is no easy task. Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument is designed to analyze the chemical composition of gases, which it creates by slowly heating rock samples in an oven.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



20 September 2019

Sols 2533-2535: SAM’s Starring Role!

Planning for this past week has centered on analyzing the high potassium drill sample, Glen Etive 2, using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



19 September 2019

Sol 2531 – 2532: Three Portions to Inlet 1 and Straight on till SAM

In Monday’s plan, we did portion drop tests of our ‘Glen Etive 2’ drill sample, and this morning we were greeted with nice images of the sample piles.

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>



17 September 2019

Sols 2529-2530: #23!

Please welcome our 23rd drill hole on Mars! Coming in at ~43 mm depth, and both the rover and new drill hole are happy and healthy!

Read More >>

Comments/Trackbacks (0)>>