By Lauren Edgar

After assessing a few different drive paths to deal with the challenging terrain, the team decided to drive uphill to avoid crossing the ripples near Jocko Butte.  On Sol 990, Curiosity drove 53 m back towards Mt. Shields, which puts our total odometry at 10,749 m.  

The goal of today’s plan is to climb uphill towards an interesting geologic contact.  It’s the same contact that we would have seen in Logan Pass, but the path through “Marias Pass” looks a little bit shorter.  Today’s plan also includes ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the target “Petty,” and Mastcam documentation of “Apikuni Mountain” and Mt. Shields to characterize the local geology.  After the drive we’ll acquire some standard imaging to help with future targeting.

Hopefully the climb will give Curiosity a good workout, and we’ll get to see some exciting features when we get there! 

–Lauren is a Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of MSL
science team.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.