31 October 2016

Sol 1507: What’s lurking in Blackwoods and Witch Hole Pond?

Posted by Ryan Anderson

Sol 1506 Navcam
Happy Halloween from Mars! Over the weekend Curiosity drove 51 m further to the south, and we continue to investigate the Murray formation.  I was the GSTL and KOP today (what a treat!) and we had a busy morning trying to decide whether or not to do contact science or more remote sensing.  We decided to forego contact science in favor of some additional ChemCam and Mastcam observations.  In the spirit of Halloween, today’s targets include “Witch Hole Pond” and “Blackwoods” to assess the chemistry of the Murray formation and to investigate some interesting sedimentary structures.  We’ll also use Mastcam for environmental monitoring to measure the opacity of the atmosphere.  Then Curiosity will drive about 30 m to the south, and we’ll take post-drive imaging to prepare for targeting and the potential for touch-and-go contact science tomorrow.  Overnight, Curiosity will be working the graveyard shift to perform another CheMin analysis of the “Sebina” sample.  Happy Halloween!

By Lauren Edgar

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.