27 November 2017

Sol 1889-1890: Back to the Grind

Posted by Ryan Anderson

While many of us spent the holiday weekend relaxing with friends and family, Curiosity took no rest on Mars and continued working hard today. The Thanksgiving plan included some unusual activities, but today was back to more typical operations with a ‘touch-and-go’ sol planned. On the first sol of the plan, we scheduled contact science with APXS and MAHLI in addition to a ChemCam observation of a rock target termed ‘Lyttelton’ and then Mastcam imaging of a possible impact crater nearby termed ‘Beit’ (the round-looking feature in the middle of the Navcam image above). Following that, Curiosity will drive approximately 40 meters toward our next stop of the Vera Rubin Ridge science campaign.

The second sol of the plan will be dedicated to remote-sensing science including a long-distance image with ChemCam of a fan like deposit closer to Mt. Sharp in addition to Navcam movies searching for dust devils and clouds.

Written by Scott Guzewich, Atmospheric Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center