You are browsing the archive for Ryan Anderson.
14 July 2015
Sol 1044-1045: Finishing the Drive
The drive over the weekend stopped a bit early (~17 meters instead of the intended ~25 meters) because the software that the rover uses to monitor its drive progress was being extra cautious. The rover is fine, and in the sol 1044 plan we will keep driving. Before the drive, ChemCam has observations of targets of varying textures named “Edith”, “Sheffer”, and “Finley”. Mastcam will take some documentation images of …
13 July 2015
Sols 1041-1043: Busy weekend planned
The rover bumped back 33 cm on Sol 1039, placing all 6 wheels on firm ground and allowing contact science on the bright rocks near the top of the slope in front of the vehicle. So the weekend plan is a full one, including both contact science and a drive back toward the southwest. First, on Sol 1041, ChemCam will passively (no laser) acquire spectra of the sky and a rock …
10 July 2015
Sols 1039-1040: Livin’ on the Edge
I’m MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead today, and was ready this morning to plan lots of MAHLI imaging of the bright rocks on the slope the rover first climbed on Sol 991. But the data received after the 5.5-meter drive on Sol 1037 showed that the left front wheel is perched right at the top of a small scarp at the top of the slope. After examining all the data, the …
7 July 2015
Sols 1037-1038: Familiar Terrain
By Lauren Edgar Over the weekend holiday plan, Curiosity drove back to our location on Sol 992. Previous DAN and ChemCam data from this site showed some interesting results, so we want to investigate this region in more detail. The front Hazcam image above shows our wheel tracks from the last time we were here, and some of the bright outcrop that we want to study further. Today’s two-sol …
6 July 2015
Sol 1033-1036: Independence Day Planning!
To paraphrase our SOWG chair’s paraphrasing of the Declaration of Independence at the start of today’s SOWG meeting: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to plan a 4 sol plan, we assemble a group of patriots to make that plan. And that’s what we did today!” Today I was back on duty as KOP and Ken was on duty for ChemCam science. As usual, it was …
2 July 2015
Sol 1032: Lots of Contact Science!
Phew! Today was a busy day on Mars! Ken and I were both on operations today, picking up where Lauren left off yesterday. Ken was helping with ChemCam science in the geology and mineralogy (GeoMin) theme group, and I was the GeoMin Keeper of the Plan (KOP). We started off the day admiring the beautiful images from the sol 1031 “dog’s-eye view” mosaic of the ledge near the target “Missoula”. …
1 July 2015
Sol 1031: A Dog’s Eye View at Missoula
By Lauren Edgar Today we planned some MAHLI imaging along the contact near the “Missoula” target (the ledge in the upper left portion of this Navcam image). We refer to it as a dog’s eye mosaic, meaning that we use the MAHLI camera to take a series of images along a vertical face – essentially sticking our nose in there to get a good view. Hopefully it will provide …
30 June 2015
Sol 1030: Bumping to Missoula
By Lauren Edgar Curiosity is still investigating the contact between the Pahrump and Stimson units. Over the weekend, Curiosity acquired MAHLI images on a coarse-grained rock named “Big Arm” (above). The goal today is to characterize some of the veins that occur above and below the contact, and then bump towards a target named “Missoula” to assess the contact at that location. The plan today includes ChemCam observations of …
28 June 2015
Sols 1027-1029: Resuming tactical operations
Mars has passed through solar conjunction, and reliable communication with the spacecraft at Mars is possible again. As planning started this morning, we were still waiting for more data to be relayed by the orbiters to confirm that MSL is ready to resume science planning, but proceeded with tactical planning so that we would be ready when the data arrived. The Sol 1027 plan starts with Mastcam observations of …
2 June 2015
Sols 1003-1004: Last tactical planning before solar conjunction
Today is the last day of MSL tactical operations until after solar conjunction, so this will probably be the last MSL update for a few weeks. Ryan Anderson and I are both on shift as payload uplink lead today, but because the instruments we’re representing (ChemCam and MAHLI/MARDI, respectively) are already standing down in preparation for conjunction, our efforts have been focused on planning for the resumption of activities after …
