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August 4th, 2020
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2842 tasks.
The robot is carrying on with its drill campaign at the “Mary Anning” site, reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Chemical and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin for short, performs chemical analysis of powdered rock samples to identify the types and amounts of different minerals that are present.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The meat of a recently scripted plan focuses on dropping off a powdered drill sample to the rover’s onboard Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin). This device is used to tell scientists all about the mineralogical composition of the latest drill hole.
In addition, the plan calls for about an hour’s worth of remote science activities to help document the rover’s surroundings.
This image of “Maybole” target was taken by Left Navigation Camera on July 16, 2020, Sol 2824.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2841 August 3, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Stereo mosaic
“To kick off the science block, Mastcam will take a meaty 53-frame stereo mosaic pointed at the fractured intermediate unit to the southeast,” Kronyak notes. “This mosaic will document a large portion of our surroundings and will also help the science team plan our drive path once we finish up our drilling activities at Mary Anning.”
Also on the plan, the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) will shoot its laser at the target “Bishop’s Palace,” which exposes some nice small-scale layering and possible diagenetic features – the physical and chemical changes occurring in sediments between the times of deposition and solidification.
Layered outcrop
ChemCam will also use its Remote Micro Imager (RMI) to take a long-distance mosaic of the “Maybole” target.
Maybole is a partially exposed, layered outcrop at the top of a nearby hill, Kronyak points out. “In fact, we purposely planned for a few frames to overlap between the long-distance RMI and Mastcam mosaics so that the lighting conditions between the two mosaics match up. This overlap will allow for nice comparisons between the two mosaics to be made.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2841, August 3, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Atmospheric monitoring
Towards the end of the science block, Curiosity’s Mastcam will take a documentation image of the ChemCam target Bishop’s Palace.
Also planned are several atmospheric monitoring activities with Navcam. Later in the sol, a Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) image is set to continue a change detection campaign at the robot’s current location, Kronyak concludes.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Right B Camera image acquired on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Posted in Space News
