Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3805. Distance driven to that Sol: 18.58 miles/29.9 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3807 duties.

The robot’s recent drive has been spotlighted by Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3806, April 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“It has been tricky for our intrepid Mars explorer as we have tried to pick our way through this small canyon as we exit marker band valley,” Thompson reports. “There are abundant large blocks that we are trying to avoid and sand patches that are potential slip hazards for the rover.”

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3806, April 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Blocks and sand

Unluckily, as Curiosity attempted to back up from the previous parking spot before driving forward, rover controllers encountered some of these blocks and sand such that the planned drive did not execute any further, Thompson adds.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3806, April 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“An unforeseen bonus of driving backwards is that we had freshly scuffed sand and rock in our workspace,” Thompson notes. “As a geologist, any time I am in the field here on Earth looking at rocks, one of the first things I do is to use my hammer to expose fresh surfaces, which often reveal different colors and textures than on a weathered surface.”

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3806, April 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Tricky terrain

At Gale crater, the only time researchers can investigate a freshly exposed rock surface is when the Mars machinery scuffs or breaks a rock from driving over it, “and then it is often behind us, so we are lucky to have the fresh surfaces in our workspace today,” Thompson points out.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3806, April 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Unfortunately, because of the tricky terrain, Curiosity was not on stable enough ground to safely unstow the arm.

There was disappointment in that the rover science team could not get an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) compositional measurement and close up Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the fresh rock, which would require arm movement.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3805, April 20, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Workspace science

Instead, a recent plan calls for utilization of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam to investigate the chemistry and textures of the fresh rock and sand in the workspace.

“Paramaca” and “Pepejoe” are examples of the freshly exposed/scuffed bedrock, Thompson points out, “and we will also capture the wheel tracks in the sand with Mastcam. Looking further afield, researchers are also acquiring Mastcam and ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) imaging of a possible channel feature (“Owentiek”) and a large boulder within the Gediz Vallis channel (“Ratunde”) respectively.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3805, April 20, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Curiosity will hopefully then weave her way through the sand and blocks, taking many steps forward to our next workspace,” Thompson adds.

Bedrock target

After the drive has completed, the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) is slated to image the new terrain beneath the rover, and ChemCam will acquire an Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) compositional measurement from a bedrock target in the new workspace.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3805, April 20, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

AEGIS is a software suite that permits the rover to autonomously detect and prioritize targets.

“Not to be left out, the environmental science team have also planned a full set of activities to continue monitoring the atmosphere. These include a Mastcam basic tau observation, as well as a Navcam 360 sky survey, line of sight image, large dust devil survey and suprahorizon movie,” Thompson reports.

Meanwhile, standard Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) activities were to round out the plan.