Curiosity drove about 29 meters toward the south on
Sol 1632, and is in a good position for weekend activities. The
MAHLI images taken on Sol 1632 look good, and the dust cover is working properly, so
MAHLI is ready to return to nominal operations! The tactical planning team therefore selected contact science targets on a block right in front of the rover that shows interesting color variations. This bedrock block is too close to the rover to allow
ChemCam data to be safely acquired, so a nearby exposure was selected for an analogous measurement and named “Hurricane Mountain.” I helped plan
ChemCam observations today, and picked a nearly-vertical layered bedrock target that we called “Hardwood Mountain.” Right
Mastcam will image these targets and take a 4×3 mosaic of another
bedrock block dubbed “Rocky Mountain.”
Mastcam will also acquire a multispectral set of images of “North Haven,” a collection of pebbles near Hurricane Mountain, and survey the sky in the afternoon. Then
MAHLI will take 5 images of “Canada Falls” from various distances before the
APXS is placed on the first of 3 closely-spaced Canada Falls targets. After sunset,
APXS data will be gathered on all 3 spots, using the arm to reposition the instrument between integrations. Early on
Sol 1635,
Navcam will search for clouds and
Mastcam will measure the dust in the atmosphere. Later in the day, more drill diagnostic tests are planned, followed by another set of
Mastcam dust observations. Then the rover will drive toward the nearby dune and acquire data that will be used to select a target for the next drive, which will hopefully position the rover well for contact science on the dune sand.