By 
May 14th, 2020
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2762, May 14, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has started Sol 2763 operations.
Ryan Anderson, a planetary geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona reports that there was a hiccup with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument in Monday’s plan.
The issue prevented it from running the “preconditioning” steps to get ready for sample analysis.
But after studying the issue the SAM team reported that everything looks ok.
The re-plan called for trying again with SAM preconditioning on the afternoon of sol 2763, “so that we can go ahead with a SAM analysis of the “Glasgow” drill sample over the weekend,” Anderson explains.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2762, May 14, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Keeping busy
While SAM gets ready, Anderson continues, the other instruments are keeping busy: Sol 2763 starts with Navcam images of the rover deck and a movie to watch for dust devils. Navcam and Mastcam will then look at the atmosphere to the north, toward the crater rim.
The robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) has two active observations, one of a bedrock target called “Ballagan,” and one of a vein called “Carlin_Tooth.” Mastcam will then do a “tau” measurement, looking at the Sun to measure dust in the atmosphere.
“Glasgow” drill site. Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo taken on Sol 2761, May 13, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Rover deck monitoring
“On Sol 2764, we’ll repeat the rover deck monitoring and the north-facing images with Navcam and Mastcam, plus a Navcam movie facing north to watch for clouds, and a larger Navcam dust devil movie,” Anderson notes. “Mastcam will then take pictures of the two ChemCam targets from Sol 2763, followed by some stereo mosaics. These extend a previous mosaic to capture more images of some interesting bedrock fractures and lineations. Finally, Mastcam will repeat its tau observation of the Sun,” he concludes.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2762, May 14, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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