20 August 2015

Sols 1080-1081: Official New Selfie!

Posted by Ryan Anderson

We had another successful drive on 1079, going about 29 meters this time. The plan for sols 1080-1081 is pretty similar to the previous plan: remote sensing and a drive on the first day, and untargeted science on the second day. On sol 1080, ChemCam has observations of the targets “Red Lodge,” “Mowry,”  and “Rosebud,” with accompanying Mastcam images. Mastcam will also take a 19-frame stereo mosaic of a cliff dubbed “Judith River.” After the drive, we have our standard post-drive imaging, plus an active measurement with DAN.

On sol 1081, since we won’t have the data down yet to do targeted observations, we have a bunch of atmospheric monitoring with REMS, Navcam, Mastcam, and ChemCam. We’re also planning a 360 degree Mastcam mosaic to take in our new surroundings and MARDI will take a picture of the ground under the rover.

Meanwhile, here on Earth, NASA has released the “official” versions of the low-angle selfies taken by MAHLI while we were drilling at “Buckskin”. I don’t know about you, but I have a new wallpaper image!

By Ryan Anderson

-Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

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.