By 
May 26th, 2020
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2773, May 25, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now wrapping up Sol 2774 tasks.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo taken on Sol 2773, May 25, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: “Drilling on Mars is an exciting business…those first images of a successful drill hole are always thrilling, even after 26 successful drill holes. Once the drilling is done though, each planning day becomes a battle to cram activities in, aiming to glean as much information as possible from the drill target, as efficiently as possible.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 2774, May 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s geology theme group (GEO) planned a large four-sol (Sols 2771-2774) plan (the U.S. holiday Memorial Day on Monday is not a planning day), and Mars scientists had to work hard to fit in everything they wanted.
Wishlist
The wishlist of activities included continuing analysis of cached drill sample with the rover’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin), and then dumping the remaining sample (“drill fines”) and investigating it with Mastcam, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the robot’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 2772, May 24, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
“We also wanted to continue our analysis of the bedrock and surroundings with ChemCam and Mastcam,” O’Connell-Cooper, adds, which will investigate the targets “Stony Breck,” “Melodious Cave,” “Haymarket,” and redo an earlier target, “Rob Roy Way.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 2773, May 25, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
On top of these GEO activities, O’Connell-Cooper says, the environment theme group (ENV) planned observations to monitor environmental conditions (dust, wind, temperature).
Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo taken on Sol 2773, May 25, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“Incredibly, we managed to fit everything in without having to sacrifice any of our coveted science activities,” O’Connell-Cooper concludes, “so Curiosity will be hard at work across this Memorial Day weekend!”
Posted in Space News
