NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is still working its way across the Naukluft Plateau and is now into Sol 1285.
On Sol 1284 Curiosity drove roughly 88 feet (27 meters, which brings the rover’s total traverse distance to roughly 8 miles (12,549 meters) reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
In the morning, Curiosity was slated to use its Mastcam and Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) on targets named “Mulden” and “Koigab” to characterize the bedrock that the robot has been driving over. A Mastcam mosaic was on the plan to investigate the local stratigraphy.
“Then Curiosity will continue driving towards the northwest, and will take post-drive imaging to prepare for contact science over the weekend,” Edgar adds.
Early the next morning, Curiosity will take several Navcam, Mastcam, and ChemCam observations to monitor the atmospheric composition and opacity and search for clouds.