Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image acquired on Sol 2093, June 26, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2094 duties.

Reports Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist for the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona: a recent two-sol plan kicked off with the good news that the rover’s power state exceeded predictions, so Mars researchers were able to add in some extra science activities.

Dust storm

The first sol called for several remote sensing activities to continue monitoring the ongoing dust storm.

Curiosity Mastcam Left photo taken on Sol 2092, June 25, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Then the team planned several Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations of “Mudhole Lake,” “Jacobs Lake,” and “Monker Lake” to assess the bedrock chemistry and search for evaporites, Edgar explains, followed by Mastcam documentation.

In the afternoon, Curiosity was slated to acquire a short multispectral tau observation to measure the optical depth of the atmosphere and constrain aerosol scattering properties.

Curiosity Mastcam Left photo taken on Sol 2092, June 25, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Driving south

Given the extra power, but without many appealing contact science targets, the team decided to get an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) calibration target observation overnight.

On the second sol Curiosity was to continue driving up the steep slope to the south, followed by post-drive imaging and further atmospheric observations, Edgar concludes.

Curiosity Mastcam Left photo acquired on Sol 2092, June 25, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS