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26 October 2015
Sol 1146-1147: A View of Meeteetse
The weekend drive was successful, placing us nicely on an overlook of the “Meeteetse” area. The focus for Sol 1146 is to get some good color stereo images of the whole area, including “Big Sky,” “Greenhorn,” and “Meeteetse”. Mastcam will take a 16×3 mosaic of the Meeteetse area, plus a 12×1 right-eye mosaic of some nearby resistant ridges. It will also measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere by …
23 October 2015
Sols 1143-1145: Last observations at Greenhorn and driving away
After a successful investigation focused on alteration zones around fractures, it’s time to move on. We’re still chewing on data from the “Greenhorn” and “Big Sky” drill samples, but we can wrap up a few last observations in this area and drive away in today’s 3-sol plan. On the first sol, we’ll acquire MAHLI images on the pre-sieve dump pile and the nearby target “Vandalia,” with overnight APXS on the …
19 October 2015
Sol 1139: Another successful drill hole on Mars
Over the weekend Curiosity drilled another hole on Mars at the “Greenhorn” target. Everything went smoothly and we have another beautiful sample to analyze! Today’s plan is focused on transferring the sample to CheMin, followed by CheMin analysis of the drill sample. I was on duty as GSTL today, and we also planned several ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the drill hole and surrounding rocks. First we’ll acquire a ChemCam …
14 October 2015
Sol 1133: Dump and “Thwack”
Sol 1133 activities are dominated by dumping the “Big Sky” sample and “thwacking” CHIMRA (the Collection and Handling for in-Situ Martian Rock Analysis) to clean out any remnants of the sample. We have to do this in preparation for the next drill sample, which will likely be the “Greenhorn” target in tomorrow’s plan. In addition to these arm activities, today’s plan includes several ChemCam and Mastcam observations of “Greenhorn” and …
10 October 2015
Sol 1128: Twenty Minutes to Mars
I got up before dawn again today, and was treated to a beautiful view of the crescent Moon, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in the eastern sky. I hadn’t seen Mars since it emerged from behind the Sun following solar conjunction last June (it was cloudy yesterday morning), and its dimness reminded me of how far away Mars is right now: 351 million kilometers or 218 million miles. It takes 20 …
7 October 2015
Sol 1127: Full MAHLI wheel imaging and bump
Planning is no longer restricted, but to ensure that Sol 1127 commands are ready to be sent to the rover on time, we had to start planning 1.5 hours earlier than usual this morning. The Sol 1126 images show that the APXS was well centered over the pre-sieve dump pile, so we are ready to move on. It’s time for a full set of MAHLI wheel images, which dominate the …
5 October 2015
Sol 1126: MAHLI selfie
The Mars Science Laboratory did well last weekend, but the Sol 1124 MAHLI images of the unsieved part of the drill sample showed that the APXS was not perfectly centered on the dump pile. Therefore, the Sol 1126 plan includes new MAHLI images and APXS measurements, better centered on the dump pile. Before the arm activities, ChemCam will acquire passive spectra of part of Mt. Sharp, a 5×1 LIBS raster …
4 October 2015
Sols 1123-1125: Drill hole and tailings
This composite image looking toward the higher regions of Mount Sharp was taken on September 9, 2015, by NASA’s Curiosity rover. In the foreground — about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the rover — is a long ridge teeming with hematite, an iron oxide. Just beyond is an undulating plain rich in clay minerals. And just beyond that are a multitude of rounded buttes, all high in sulfate minerals. The …
1 October 2015
Sol 1121-1122: Successful Drill at Big Sky
Success! Our drill at “Big Sky” went perfectly! On Sol 1121, the rover will transfer some of the powder from Big Sky to CheMin so that it can begin analyzing the mineralogy of the sample. Also on Sol 1121, ChemCam has an observation of the target “Minnekahta”. Mastcam will document the ChemCam location and also take a picture of the location on the ground where Big Sky material will be …
28 September 2015
Sol 1119-1120: "Go" for full drill at Big Sky!
As you can see, our mini-drill over the weekend went well, so we are GO for drilling “Big Sky” on sol 1119! The hope is that this location will provide a good sample of the “typical” rock in the area to compare with some of the interesting alteration we’ve been seeing. Along with the drilling, there will be a bunch of MAHLI documentation images of the hole from varying distances …
