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October 19th, 2016
Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image taken on Sol 1494, October 19, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1494.
Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona reports that winds at the Curiosity site unexpectedly influenced the “Quela” dump pile.
Images taken by rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager showed the pile was offset from the center of the pile.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 1493, October 18, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Dump pile movement
“After looking at more of the recent images,” Herkenhoff reports, “it became clear that the dump pile had been moved by winds!” A plan was put together, but delayed, to repeat the ChemCam passive observation and an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) study on the dump pile at its new position.
“Hopefully the wind won’t blow away the dump pile,” Herkenhoff adds, “before APXS can measure its chemical composition!”
Drill campaign
Last weekend’s plan was the official start of a Curiosity drill campaign on the target “Sebina,” so the robot will be staying at its location through the week, notes Ryan Anderson, also of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1492, October 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
On Sol 1492, the rover did a lot of remote sensing, starting off with an early morning suite of atmospheric observations using Navcam and Mastcam.
Anderson reports that the rover’s Mastcam took a 360 degree mosaic from the Mars machinery’s current location.
Since touching down in August 2012, Curiosity has driven over 9 miles (15 kilometers).
Posted in Space News
