Advertisement

You are browsing the archive for MSL Archives - Martian Chronicles.

30 May 2017

Sol 1713: Not enough hours in the sol

Our Tuesday drive placed us perfectly in front of a very interesting outcrop that looked slightly different in color and texture from the typical Murray rocks we’ve been seeing for the last few hundred meters.

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


21 May 2017

Planning Sol 1705 – 1706: Rocky Road

Curiosity is continuing to make progress towards Vera Rubin Ridge along the Mt Sharp ascent route.  We planned two sols today, Sol 1705 and Sol 1706.  On our first sol, we will kick off the day with some remote sensing science on the bedrock in front of us, including ChemCam observations of targets ‘Turtle Island’, ‘Stony Brook’, and ‘Dike Peak’.  Turtle Island is typical Murray bedrock, Stony Brook has an …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


2 September 2016

Sols 1450-1453: Communication challenges

Curiosity had a nice ~78 m drive on Sol 1448, which set us up for a lot of great science over the long (4-sol) weekend.  Unfortunately a problem with the Deep Space Network caused an entire Odyssey pass to be lost, so we didn’t receive the workspace images that we would have needed to do contact science.  Without those images we didn’t feel safe moving the arm. But the team …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


20 August 2016

Sol 1436: Smooth sailing

We are making good progress with our drives (we’re already approaching our next drill site!) and the road in front of us is looking pretty smooth. As usual we have a busy weekend planned. Sol 1436 starts off with ChemCam and Mastcam of the layered rock targets “Conda” and “Savungo.” Mastcam then has a mosaic of one of the buttes, and another mosaic of an interesting feature within the Murray …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


9 August 2016

Sol 1426: Bringing in the data at Marimba

Today’s plan is focused on retrieving CheMin data from the overnight analysis of the Marimba drill sample and MAHLI and APXS observations of the drill hole and cuttings.  The plan starts with a short science block for atmospheric monitoring, followed by CheMin data readout.  Then we’ll do a short Mastcam change detection activity before dumping the pre-sieved drill sample.  After we dump the sample, we’ll acquire Mastcam, Navcam and MAHLI

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


8 August 2016

Sol 1421: Determining drill activities at Marimba

On Sol 1420 we planned a full drill hole on the target “Marimba” to characterize the composition of the Murray mudstone in this location.  However, we came in early this morning to find that the drill hole didn’t penetrate very far into this rock target, as seen in the above MAHLI image.  We’re trying to evaluate why this drill hole is different, and what prevented the drill from completing as …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


3 August 2016

Sol 1420: Drilling Marimba

The Sol 1419 activities completed successfully, including cleaning the remaining Oudam sample out of CHIMRA.  So the focus of the Sol 1420 plan is drilling into the Marimba bedrock target.  But first, MAHLI will image the “noseprint” of the APXS contact sensor in the Oudam dump pile and the drill target from various distances.  After the drilling has completed, the drill bit and the new drill hole will be imaged …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


1 August 2016

Sol 1418: Preparing to drill Marimba

Today’s plan was all about setting up for our next drill hole. Originally there was going to be no science block at all, but we ended up with a little bit more power than expected, so we managed to fit in a ChemCam observation of the expected drill target, called “Marimba” along with Mastcam documentation.

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


29 July 2016

Sols 1416-1417: Approaching the next drill target

MSL drove another 44 meters on Sol 1414, into an area with larger blocks of bedrock. This looks like a good area to drill into the Murray Formation, so nearby targets were selected and we are planning a short drive to position the vehicle for drilling. But first, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe bedrock targets “Chibia” and “Dondo.” Mastcam will also measure the dust in the atmosphere and take an image of the Sol 1414 ChemCam AEGIS target.

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


27 July 2016

Sols 1414-1416: Keep on truckin’

MSL drove over 45 meters on Sol 1412, to a location with lots of bedrock exposed but most of it is coated by dust. So again we decided not to deploy the arm and acquire lots of ChemCam data instead. LIBS observations of targets named “Okahandja,” “Swakopmund,” and “Walvis Bay” will be followed by another long-distance RMI mosaic. Then the Right Mastcam will image the ChemCam targets and acquire a 5-image mosaic of the Murray Buttes. The Left Mastcam will take a 7-image mosaic of the bedrock in front of the rover before the Sol 1414 drive.

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>