14 August 2015
Sols 1075-1077: Time for SAM!
We had another successful drive on sol 1074, putting us in a good position for the weekend! The main activity for the weekend is using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument to analyze some of the recent drill sample that we collected. SAM activities will take up all of sol 1075. On sol 1076, we will use MAHLI to check on the health of our wheels, and SAM will …
13 August 2015
Sol 1074: Crazy Mountain
The 47 meter drive on sol 1073 went exactly as expected, putting us in a good position for the sol 1074 plan. It’s a pretty simple plan today, with time for a single ChemCam observation of a target called “Crazy Mountain”. I got to pick the name for this target (one of my favorite parts of being involved in operations), and it seemed fitting since the target is on a …
12 August 2015
1073: Drive-Thru Geology
The drive on sol 1072 was successful, with a total distance travelled of about 35 meters. For sol 1073, Mastcam will be very busy taking pictures to document the geology in our new location. We are planning a 31×1 mosaic of the outcrop in Marias Pass, plus a 13×3 mosaic of “Mt. Shields” (not to be confused with Mt. Sharp!) and a 10×3 stereo mosaic of “Gunton”. Navcam also …
11 August 2015
Sols 1071-1072: What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate
Unfortunately over the weekend there was an outage at the Deep Space Network, which prevented the plan for the weekend from being sent to Curiosity. So, instead of a busy weekend, Curiosity was in “runout” mode, making routine environmental monitoring measurements and waiting patiently for more instructions. The sol 1071 and 1072 plans are focused primarily on recovering the observations that were lost in the weekend plan, before we drive …
9 August 2015
Sols 1068-1070: Back at Missoula
Curiosity had a successful drive of 19 meters on Sol 1067, and we are currently back at Missoula for more targeted science. The goal is to perform a detailed study of the Stimson-Pahrump contact, and to determine the relative timing of some of the veins that we’ve observed here. The three-sol plan is a busy one, with a lot of ChemCam analyses. On Sol 1068 Curiosity will acquire ChemCam LIBS …
7 August 2015
Sol 1067: Bumping to Missoula… sound familiar?
With a familiar blog title, I report that in today’s plan we’re bumping towards the Missoula outcrop. On Sol 1066 Curiosity drove ~ 25 m back toward Missoula, but we still have a little further to go. However, the science team took advantage of our current position to collect some additional data on the Stimson unit (shown in the above Navcam image). Today’s plan includes ChemCam and Mastcam observations of …
5 August 2015
Sol 1066: Happy 3rd Anniversary on Mars!
By Lauren Edgar Tonight marks the third anniversary of Curiosity’s landing in Gale crater. It’s been a great three years, full of a number of important science discoveries. Check out this video and webpage for a summary of some of the top science results so far. To celebrate starting her 4th year on Mars, Curiosity is driving away from the Lion outcrop, and back toward the Missoula outcrop. I feel like …
4 August 2015
Sol 1065: Last Call at Lion
By Lauren Edgar It’s been a great couple of weeks at the Lion outcrop, but it’s time to move on. After a successful investigation that included observations by almost every science instrument, we’re getting ready to drive away tomorrow. That means that today (and tomorrow before we drive) is the last call for science observations. So we put together a full plan for Sol 1066. In the morning we’ll …
3 August 2015
Sol 1064: Dump pre-sieve sample
The activities planned for last weekend completed successfully, including sample dropoff to CheMin (shown in image) and analysis of the minerals present. So the Sol 1064 plan includes dumping the portion of the drill sample that has not been sieved and Mastcam, ChemCam, MAHLI, and APXS observations of the dump pile. ChemCam and Mastcam will also observe nearby targets “Martz” and “Mountain Home.” MAHLI will image the drill hole, tailings …
2 August 2015
Sols 1061-1063: Sample dropoff to CheMin
This morning, the MSL operations team was very happy to see that drilling into Buckskin was successful! The weekend plan therefore has more arm activities, including transferring the sample to the scoop for inspection. But first, the ChemCam RMI will take pictures of the new drill hole and Mastcam will image a potential location for eventually dumping the sample. The sample will be sieved and a portion of the fine-grained …
