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6 June 2018
Sol 2074: And the Crowd Went Wild
Today we received the happy news that the SAM instrument received enough sample to conduct its ‘evolved gas’ analysis of the powdered rock from our ‘Duluth’ drill hole!
5 June 2018
Sol 2073: Another CheMin Analysis
The focus of Curiosity operations continues to be on the analysis of the Duluth drill sample.
4 June 2018
Sol 2070 – 2072: A very, Very, VERY good day on Mars
Every single day that the Curiosity team gets to go into work and operate a one-ton rover on the surface of Mars is a good day. But last Friday was not just your typical good day — it was a very, very, very good day.
Sol 2072: The Great Martian Bake Off
An EGA basically involves baking the powdered rock sample in a several hundred degree oven, and then measuring the amount and composition of gases that are liberated.
31 May 2018
Sols 2068-2069: Triple delivery for CheMin
The environmental theme group planned two early morning Navcam cloud movies on Sol 2069 less than an hour after sunrise. The cooler early morning is now the best time to see clouds, as we move well past the ‘cloudy’ season and into the warmer half of the year.
30 May 2018
Sol 2067: ‘Tis the Season to be Dusty.
We’ve just moved past southern spring equinox, which means we’re now in the half of the Mars year when global dust storms are observed to begin.
25 May 2018
Sol 2063-2066: Sample drop-off testing
ChemCam will also be busy this weekend, measuring the chemistry of a bumpy bedrock target named ‘Brule Mountain’ and layered bedrock targets ‘Devil Track’ and ‘Devilfish Tower’ on Sol 2063.
22 May 2018
Sols 2061-2062: Time to feed CheMin
After successfully drilling the ‘Duluth’ target on Sol 2057 (as seen in the above Mastcam image), the science team is eager to find out what it’s made of.
Sol 2059-2060: Characterizing a Successful Drill!
This past weekend, Curiosity successfully drilled into the ‘Duluth’ rock target, generating a beautiful pile of drill tailings! This is a very exciting time for us on the rover team, who have been waiting for quite a while to successfully drill into a target and to ingest samples into the rover’s analytical instruments.
21 May 2018
Sols 2056-2058: Poised
This weekend, Curiosity will attempt to sink the drill into the complexly-layered ‘Duluth’ block. Before that, she will gather more data from the ‘Blunts Point’ member rocks in front of and around us.
