By 
February 1st, 2019
Curiosity Mastcam Left photo taken on Sol 2304, January 29, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity is presently performing Sol 2307 tasks.
Ashley Stroupe, a mission operations engineer at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California, reports that Curiosity is venturing further into the clay unit territory.
Curiosity Image shows the ridge and the smooth terrain. Photo taken by Navcam Left A Sol 2306 January 31, 2019
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Several targets are being observed with Mastcam color and ChemCam to try to characterize the chemistry and texture of this new terrain. Also on tap is taking a Chemistry and Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic of “Buchan Ridge,” an upcoming area of exploration within the clay unit, to aid in navigation and traverse planning.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo acquired on Sol 2306, January 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Hidden from view
“We’re driving up to the crest of a ridge so that we will be able to see down the other side, which is currently hidden from our view,” Stroupe notes. “The new terrain is so featureless, that visual odometry is having trouble tracking our position and measuring slip, which caused the rover to stop the sol 2304 drive early.”
Stroupe adds that rover planners are using some extra imaging to help operators of the robot characterize how the rover performs on this new terrain.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right A image taken on Sol 2306, January 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are hoping something of interest will be in our workspace for contact science in the weekend plan,” Stroupe says. “Much of our post-drive imaging will also be of higher resolution than usual (lossless compression) so that we can see the fine details and get good stereo for drive planning.”
Curiosity Navcam Left A image acquired on Sol 2306 January 31, 2019
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Navcam Left A image acquired on Sol 2306 January 31, 2019
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Navcam Right A photo taken on Sol 2306, January 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Right A image taken on Sol 2306, January 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Mastcam Right photo taken on Sol 2304, January 29, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Blocks of memory
After Curiosity’s drive, the plan calls for continuing the monitoring of weather, with Mastcam taus, dust devil movies, and some other atmospheric imaging.
Also slated is use of Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) software for automated ChemCam science, Stroupe explains, “which should help us find anything interesting in this terrain.”
“Last, but not least, we’re continuing our diagnostics to better understand our issues with the Side-B computer, dumping some more blocks of memory,” Stroupe concludes.
Posted in Space News
