You are browsing the archive for Curiosity.
6 December 2015
Sol 1182: Studying our Tracks
Today’s plan is focused on studying the results of yesterday’s mobility test where we drove a little ways into a sand patch and then backed out, leaving trenches where the wheels were. Yes, we’re disturbing some of the very photogenic sand ripples that we have been seeing, but it’s for a good cause: it teaches us more about how well we can drive in that sand, and by using the …
3 December 2015
Sol 1183: Completing mobility tests
Today we are planning the last sol of the mobility test, turning and backing out of the sand while taking multiple Hazcam images, then pausing to take Navcam and Mastcam images of the wheel tracks. But first, Mastcam will take multispectral images of a rock named “Narabeb” and a soil target dubbed “Kubib.” The right Mastcam will also acquire another 2×2 mosaic of Secomib, to look for changes in the …
2 December 2015
Sol 1181: Mobility testing
Due to problems at the Goldstone DSN complex, the bundle of command sequences generated for Sol 1180 could not be sent to MSL. So the rover performed minimal activities on Sol 1180, as expected in “runout” mode. The good news is that the rover’s batteries are charged up, and the engineering team determined that activities can be planned after the heater table update by avoiding the types of heating that …
30 November 2015
Sol 1180: Heater table update
The MAHLI wheel imaging planned for Sol 1179 completed nominally, and the initial assessment showed no broken grousers. The rover is now poised to begin testing mobility in the dark sand in front of the vehicle, but first a table used onboard to determine when heating is needed must be updated. No heating is allowed this sol after the update, which limits the activities that can be planned. So it …
25 November 2015
Sols 1177-1179: Recipe for a successful rover plan
The 28 m drive on Sol 1174 ran successfully and Curiosity is now parked in front of a beautiful sand sheet and sand dune! Today science and engineering teams cooked up a full 3-sol plan, to account for the second half of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The team started with equal parts Mastcam and ChemCam to analyze the sand and bedrock, and to monitor the movement of sand across the …
24 November 2015
Sols 1174-1176: A feast of activities
As many Americans are making plans for Thanksgiving, we’re making sure that Curiosity has plenty to do over the holiday weekend. On Sol 1173, Curiosity drove 45 m to the south, which put us in a great position in front of a small sandsheet and the stoss side of a large dune. Today we’re planning 3 sols to cover part of the long weekend (we’ll plan an additional 3 sols …
23 November 2015
Sol 1173: Dune monitoring
Over the weekend, Curiosity drove 51 m closer to the Bagnold Dunes. I’m on duty as the Geology Science Theme Lead, and today we’re planning Sol 1173, which includes a short science block, a drive, post-drive imaging, and some untargeted science in the afternoon. The main focus of today’s plan is to monitor the dunes and document the bedrock along the way. We’ll start with several Mastcam observations to monitor …
21 November 2015
Sols 1170-1172: Studying bedrock, sand, and sky
This week Curiosity has been driving towards the Bagnold Dunes and characterizing the bedrock and sand along the way. After a successful SAM methane experiment and 36.5 m drive on Sol 1168, Curiosity spent Sol 1169 recharging and assessing some of the local bedrock and dunes. The weekend 3-sol plan starts with a number of environmental monitoring activities to assess atmospheric opacity and composition. The second sol includes several ChemCam …
18 November 2015
Sols 1167-1168: Onward to the Bagnold Dunes
The Bagnold Dunes are tantalizingly close, and this week is mostly focused on driving to the dunes. On Sol 1167 Curiosity drove 39 m, and the dunes are starting to look pretty big, as seen in the above Navcam image. For more on our plans when we get to the dunes, check out this recent press release. The plan today looks very similar to yesterday, with a pre-drive science block, a …
16 November 2015
Sol 1165: Uplink Problems
Unfortunately, our plans for the weekend were thwarted by a problem with the Deep Space Network that prevented the plans from being sent to the rover. As someone on the team pointed out in response to the issue, this just goes to show how many steps in the process have to go just right for us to be able to operate a rover on Mars, and it’s pretty impressive that …
