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November 18th, 2019
Curiosity now has another butte in view: “Western butte”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2589, November 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover is now performing Sol 2589 tasks.
Reports Roger Wiens, noted geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory:
“After the ‘butte-iful’ location and view of sols 2585-2586, Curiosity descended back down from its perch on ‘Central butte’ and skirted its steep side,” Wiens explains.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 2589, November 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The robot now has another butte in view, “Western butte.”
“Little by little, Curiosity is climbing higher, toward the edge of ‘Greenheugh pediment,’”Wiens adds.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2589, November 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New location
The drive of Curiosity was 131 feet (40 meters) toward the southwest. At the new location, Curiosity will observe two targets, “Blawhorn” and “Gorgie,” with Mastcam, Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), and its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).
Mastcam will also take images of “Yella Moor,” “Dalchork,” “Glen Lui,” and “Craigmillar,” as well as making a tau measurement and a crater rim extinction observation, Wiens points out.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2589, November 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sky survey
MAHLI will take an image of the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) UV sensor. Navcam will take dust-devil movies, suprahorizon movies, and a 360 sky survey.
REMS, Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), and the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) will also take data.
On the final day of the weekend plan, Curiosity was to advance 66 feet (20 meters), after which it will take Navcam images of its new surroundings. The rover will then compute a ChemCam target, using the Autonomous Exploration for Gathering of Increased Science (AEGIS) software, which will then direct the instrument to shoot a 3×3 raster on it.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
“Finally, Mastcam will take a sunset tau observation, and the rover will radio home with a large bundle of new data,” Wiens concludes.
New road map
Meanwhile, a new map has been issued showing Curiosity’s location for Sol 2589.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 2589 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (November 18, 2019).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up.
From Sol 2586 to Sol 2589, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 23.85 feet (7.27 meters). Since touching down in Bradbury Landing in August 2012, Curiosity has driven 13.27 miles (21.36 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 2587, November 16, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2589, November 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2588, November 17, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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