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7 March 2017
Sols 1630-1631: Early Morning Planning
We had an early-morning (6 AM on the west coast!) start to Curiosity planning today, which was a bit painful but with the help of lots of caffeine we put together another plan full of good science! The exciting news from the weekend plan is that the MAHLI dust cover closed as planned, so we’re back in business with MAHLI.
3 March 2017
Sols 1627-1629: Driving again
Good news: the MAHLI cover was successfully opened and the instrument is marked healthy again. That means it’s time to close the cover, and if that’s successful, drive away toward the next stop in the Bagnold Dunes Campaign.
1 March 2017
Sols 1625-1626: Change detection and additional remote sensing
Curiosity is still at the second stop of the Bagnold Dune campaign, running a few more MAHLI diagnostics and focusing on targeted remote sensing.
27 February 2017
Sols 1623-1624: MAHLI diagnostics and remote sensing
Today’s two-sol plan is devoted to MAHLI diagnostics and remote sensing. It’s another late slide sol, so planning started three and half hours later than usual. The plan kicks off with arm activities to better understand the fault that MAHLI experienced last week. Then ChemCam will investigate “Dunn Brook,” a target that is just above “Chase Brook” from the weekend plan, and is shown in the above Mastcam image.
24 February 2017
Sol 1619: Wrapping up dune stop #2
We are wrapping up our observations at stop #2 of the second Bagnold dunes campaign. In the Sol 1619 plan, we start off with Navcam and Mastcam atmospheric observations, followed by a ChemCam observation of the sandy target “Leighton.” Mastcam will then document Leighton and the autonomously identified ChemCam target from the post-drive science block on Sol 1617.
Sols 1620-1622: A weekend full of remote sensing
On Sol 1619, MAHLI experienced a fault and did not finish its planned imaging, so unfortunately the subsequent arm and mobility activities did not execute. That means that the weekend plan is devoted to MAHLI recovery activities and a lot of remote sensing. I was the GSTL today, and although it was a challenging start to the day, we were able to put together a very full plan.
22 February 2017
Sol 1617: Re-attempt the drive
The drive planned for Sol 1616 halted early, apparently because the right rear wheel got stuck between two rocks. The mobility team concluded that it is safe to continue, so the drive planned for Sol 1617 is essentially the same as the previously-planned drive.
Sol 1618: A second stop at the dunes
The drive on Sol 1617 went well, and Curiosity drove 20 m to the south, which put us in a good position for another stop at the Bagnold Dunes. This site was selected to enable comparison of the leading and trailing edges of the dunes. Today’s plan includes ChemCam observations of disturbed and undisturbed soil, at targets named “Tomhegan” and “Macworth.”
16 February 2017
Sols 1612-1613: Planning challenges
After a 23-meter drive on Sol 1611, MSL again ended up in an area with many bedrock blocks partly covered by dark sand.
15 February 2017
Sol 1611: Patch Mountain
Curiosity drove almost 27 meters on Sol 1610 to a location with several potential targets, so the planning team spent some time discussing priorities.
