By 
April 20th, 2024
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 4159. Distance driven at that time: 19.68 miles/31.67 kilometers.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing its duties at Gale Crater, landing on Mars in August, 2012.
“Curiosity continues to make progress along the margin of upper Gediz Vallis ridge, investigating the broken bedrock in our workspace and acquiring images of the ridge deposit as the rover drives south,” reports Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 4160 April 19, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A recently scripted two sol plan — Sols 4159-4160 — focused on a Dust Removal Tool (DRT) activity, contact science, and a drive on the first sol, followed by untargeted remote sensing on the second sol.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 4160 April 19, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Weekend activities
“The team had to make some decisions at the start of planning about whether to drive on the first or second sol of this plan, and how that would affect the upcoming weekend activities,” Edgar adds.
“As it turned out, the team was able to fit all of the desired contact science and remote sensing activities on the first sol, in addition to the drive on the first sol, which means we’ll be able to downlink more information about our end-of-drive location to better inform planning for the weekend,” Edgar noted.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 4160 April 19, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Assess the stratigraphy
The first sol of this scripted plan is “fully loaded,” Edgar reports. The plan begins with a DRT activity to expose a fresh surface on the bedrock target ‘Tilden Lake,’ followed by Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) integrations to investigate its composition.
Then the geology theme group planned several hours of remote sensing activities, including Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) on the bedrock target “Curry Village,” which has a similar “dragon scale” texture (or “tire tracks”) to what researchers had observed in the previous workspace.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Long distance imagery
This big remote sensing block also includes ChemCam long distance Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics to assess the stratigraphy at Gediz Vallis ridge and the distant butte Kukenan.
“These long distance RMI images reveal a lot of great detail about distant targets, like the diversity of clasts at Gediz Vallis ridge,” Edgar points out.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“The plan also includes a number of Mastcam activities to characterize local textures, sedimentary structures, dark rocks, and sandy aeolian bedforms (known as Transverse Aeolian Ridges, aka TARs) in a nearby trough,” Edgar reports.
“The environmental theme group also planned activities to monitor the movement of fines on the rover deck, search for dust devils, and monitor atmospheric dust,” Edgar says.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Driving south
After this big remote sensing block, Curiosity will use Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to image the contact science target, and then continue driving south.
The second sol includes untargeted activities like an autonomously selected ChemCam “AEGIS” target, additional Navcam deck monitoring, and Navcam line-of-sight observations.
AEGIS stands for Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) – a software suite that permits the rover to autonomously detect and prioritize targets.
After the drive, the scripted plan called for taking post drive imaging to prepare for the next plan.
Concludes Edgar: “Looking forward to seeing what other surprises our next workspace will reveal!”
Curiosity Mast Camera Right on Sol 4159 April 18, 2024.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Posted in Space News
