By 
July 7th, 2020
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 2815, July 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just begun performing Sol 2816 functions.
The rover has taken a turn…to the north, reports Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 2815, July 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We returned to nominal planning…after successfully upgrading Curiosity’s flight software,” Thompson explains.
Recent drive
A just completed drive should take Curiosity a little to the north and east, towards its first planned stop on a summer road-trip to the sulfate-bearing unit.
“In order to preserve as much drive time and distance as possible, we kept the science activities relatively short and sweet,” Thompson adds.
Prior to the drive, Curiosity was slated to acquire a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) compositional analysis of the typical bedrock exposure in the workspace (“Bow Fiddle”), as well as two Mastcam mosaics of the eastern-most exposures of the Greenheugh Pediment, which Mars researchers plan to visit later in the mission.
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 2813, July 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Capture the chemistry
“Following the drive, the ChemCam instrument will capture the chemistry of the rocks in the new workspace, using its autonomous targeting capabilities,” Thompson explains. “The remaining post-drive science activities will be devoted primarily to environment and atmospheric monitoring, which are particularly important during Mars’ current dusty season. These will include a large Navcam dust devil survey, a Navcam deck survey, Mastcam full tau imaging towards the Sun and a Mastcam sky survey.”
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 2813, July 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Maximize driving
A post-drive Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) science block is to monitor the ground beneath Curiosity’s wheels, as well as standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) activities would round out a return to nominal planning.
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 2813, July 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
As the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) strategic planner, Thompson says, the plan calls for maximizing driving for distance on the robot’s summer road-trip.
“However, I am looking forward to Curiosity being able to stretch her arm over the weekend, to touch the rocks, and hopefully document the chemistry and textures with the contact science instruments (APXS and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).”
Dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Posted in Space News
