Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1447, September 1, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Now in Sol 1451 on Mars, the Curiosity rover has a Labor Day of duties, but has recently been stymied by communication challenges.

Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, reports that a Deep Space Network issue led to an entire Odyssey Mars orbiter pass to be lost.

“So we didn’t receive the workspace images that we would have needed to do contact science.  Without those images we didn’t feel safe moving the arm. But the team did a great job putting together a full weekend plan,” Edgar adds.

Long weekend

Curiosity did wheel itself across Mars on a drive of roughly 255 feet (78 meters) on Sol 1448, Edgar notes, “which set us up for a lot of great science over the long (4-sol) weekend.”

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1448, September 2, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The Mars robot was slated to carry out several Navcam observations to search for dust devils and monitor the atmosphere. Also scheduled was acquisition of a Mastcam mosaic “to document the beautiful buttes that we’ve been driving through,” followed by Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations of the targets “Benguela” and “Gabela” to assess the composition of the local bedrock, Edgar says.

Buttes: better lighting conditions

Also on tap for Curiosity were more Mastcam mosaics of the buttes under better lighting conditions. Then the rover was to carry out a Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) methane experiment.

Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1448, September 1, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A 360-degree Mastcam mosaic to document the geology as the robot drives through the Murray Buttes is also on the to-do list, followed by standard post-drive imaging for targeting and context.

Edgar says that after a busy weekend, the fourth sol is devoted entirely to Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) observations.

Gorgeous view

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1449, September 2, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

“While the buttes are beautiful, they pose a challenge to communications, because they are partially occluding communications between the rover and the satellites we use to relay data,” Edgar points out. Those orbiting assets are the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Odyssey spacecraft.

“So sometimes the data volume that we can relay is pretty low,” Edgar remarks. “But it’s a small price to pay for the great stratigraphic exposures and gorgeous view!”