On Sol 1583 Curiosity drove 16 m, which set us up for touch-and-go contact science today.  I was the GKOP again, and it was a fun day of planning contact science and remote sensing.  The plan starts with a short APXS integration on the target “Frost Pond,” (seen in the middle of the above Navcam image) to investigate the chemistry of a typical Murray bedrock block.  Then we’ll take a full suite of MAHLI images on the same target.  Later in the plan we’ll acquire a ChemCam observation of “Frost Pond” for comparison, and we’ll also take a Mastcam image for documentation.  We’ll also acquire a small Mastcam mosaic of “Burnt Brook” to investigate some color variations, and a Navcam observation to search for dust devils.  After another drive, we’ll take post-drive imaging for targeting.  Later in the afternoon we’ll use Mastcam to monitor the movement of fines on the rover deck and take a systematic clast survey, and ChemCam will take another AEGIS observation.

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.