Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 2604, December 3, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now closing out Sol 2604 duties.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2604, December 3, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports on the robot’s activities under a 2-sol plan that involved working the rover’s robotic arm and also a drive.

Use of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is on the to-do list on a target named “Run Well” “so that we can compare the compositions of the Western Butte with what we saw at the Central Butte, Stroupe notes.

Local rocks

After stowing the arm, Mars researchers have a science block with a survey of local rocks with Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam. Then the plan calls for a drive to another laminated block roughly 50 feet (15 meters) away with the intent to do contact science.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2602, December 1, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“After the drive, and before we do our post-drive arm unstow and post-drive imaging, we are doing a sun update to reset the rover’s attitude estimate, which keeps our ability to point back at Earth,” Stroupe adds.

Curiosity Mast Camera Left image acquired on Sol 2602, December 1, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Software selecting

On the second sol of the plan, the rover will do some AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) observations using that specialized software. “Can’t wait to see what AEGIS picks to look at!,” Stroupe says.

Also on tap is some standard environmental observations – dust devil survey and movie and a Navcam line-of-sight observation to look at the atmospheric opacity, Stroupe concludes.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2602, December 1, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech