26 June 2018

Sols 2093-2094: Feeling powerful

Posted by Ryan Anderson

Today’s 2-sol plan kicked off with the good news that our power state exceeded predictions, so we were able to add in some extra science activities. The first sol starts with several remote sensing activities to continue to monitor the ongoing dust storm. Then the team planned several ChemCam observations of ‘Mudhole Lake,’ ‘Jacobs Lake,’ and ‘Monker Lake’ to assess the bedrock chemistry and search for evaporites, followed by Mastcam documentation. In the afternoon, Curiosity will acquire a short multispectral tau observation to measure the optical depth of the atmosphere and constrain aerosol scattering properties. Given the extra power today, but without many appealing contact science targets, the team decided to get an APXS calibration target observation overnight. On the second sol Curiosity will continue driving up the steep slope to the south, followed by post-drive imaging and further atmospheric observations. I’ll be on duty for the next plan, so I spent today getting caught up on everything that Curiosity has been up to!

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center