
MSL drove over 45 meters on
Sol 1428, closer to the
Murray Buttes. I helped select
ChemCam targets again this morning, and was glad to see that some of them made it into the weekend plan. The primary constraint on planning today ended up being power–we tried to fit more into the plan than the rover’s batteries could support! But we were still able to include a lot of good activities into the plan, starting with a dust devil search, dust opacity measurements, and
Mastcam stereo mosaics of the Murray Buttes on
Sol 1429.
ChemCam will acquire
LIBS data on bedrock targets “Matala,” “Cazombo,” and “Ondjiva” before the Right
Mastcam takes a 7×3 mosaic that includes the
ChemCam targets. Overnight and into the early morning hours of
Sol 1430,
SAM will perform the first part of an experiment on the Mojave drill sample that has been stored in the instrument for several months. The second part of the
SAM experiment is planned for the next night, completing early on
Sol 1431. Finally, a drive is planned for
Sol 1431, followed by acquisition of the data needed to plan another drive
on Monday. So, even though we had to remove some activities during planning, the rover will be very busy this weekend!
by Ken Herkenhoff
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.