14 August 2016

Sols 1429-1431: Power limited

Posted by Ryan Anderson

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.