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June 19th, 2020
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo of Bloodstone Hill, taken on Sol 2795, June 17, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now conducting Sol 2798 tasks and has reached the 14.0 mile (22.53 kilometers) mark since landing in August 2012.
Following a recent drive, Curiosity has wheeled closer to “Bloodstone Hill.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2796, June 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Perfect spot
Another scheduled drive of the rover is to put it in a perfect spot to conduct contact science in the upcoming weekend plan with arm instruments – the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), the Dust Removal Tool (DRT), and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2796, June 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity was scheduled to utilize a suite of remote sensing observations to document its surroundings as it approached Bloodstone Hill.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2796, June 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Nodular-rich bedrock
On the first sol of a recently scripted plan, Mars scientists filled a science block with three Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) targets: two nodular-rich bedrock targets (“Dry Harbour” and “Embra”) and bedrock target “Ormiston.”
“Following ChemCam, we’ll document Dry Harbour and Ormiston with a single Mastcam documentation image since the targets are in close proximity to one another,” Kronyak adds. “We’ll document the Embra target as part of a larger mosaic to investigate a nearby trough feature. We also planned for a large Mastcam stereo mosaic to capture our view of Bloodstone Hill from our current parking spot. Following our science block, Curiosity will drive the last leg to Bloodstone Hill and collect post-drive images to document our new surroundings.”
Auto-identify
On the second sol of a recently scripted plan, ChemCam was set to collect data on three targets at its new location.
“ChemCam is able to do this using its Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) mode,” Kronyak points out. “The AEGIS software allows the rover to automatically identify targets near the rover and collect geochemical data. Having these three additional ChemCam targets will bolster our geochemical dataset at Bloodstone Hill.”
Road map
A new rover road map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 2793 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (June 15, 2020).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).
From Sol 2790 to Sol 2793, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 155.23 feet (47.31 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 14.0 miles (22.53 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2796, June 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2796, June 17, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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