Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1536, December 1, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The report from ground zero on Mars is that the Curiosity rover has encountered a drill fault.

The robot is now in Sol 1537, and reports Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona:

“Unfortunately, the much-anticipated rotary-only drilling experiment did not even start due to a drill fault that is currently being investigated,” he reports.

Curiosity Mastcam Right image of drill taken on Sol 1537, December 2, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Scramble plan

This type of drill fault appears to be unrelated to the previous short circuits during percussion, but more study is needed, Herkenhoff adds. “So the tactical planning team had to scramble to put together a plan while the drill experts work to recover from this anomaly.”

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1535, November 30, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Herkenhoff notes that, luckily, the fault did not preclude non-drilling arm activities, “so we picked the bright target ‘Thomas Bay’ for contact science.”

Science observations

The Curiosity science team was able to fit remote science observations into the plan:  A Navcam cloud movie, a Right Mastcam mosaic of “Squid Cove,” Mastcam measurements of dust in the atmosphere, and a small Mastcam stereo mosaic of “Baldwin Corners.”

At various times of day, the robot’s Navcam and Mastcam were to image the ground toward and opposite the azimuth of sunset to measure the photometric (light scattering) properties of the rocks and soils near the rover.

Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1535, November 30, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Curiosity’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and the Right Mastcam were also slated to observe bedrock target “Compass Harbor” and vein targets “Bartlett Narrows” and “Birch Point.”

Dusty lens?

“After drill diagnostics are performed, more Mastcam dust measurements and images of ‘Hulls Cove’ and ‘Big Heath’ are planned,” Herkenhoff notes.

Also, images using the robot’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) were to focus on the closing of a dust cover and find the best time to take images in full sunlight.

Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. MAHLI took this image through protective dust cover on December 1, 2016, Sol 1536.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

“Since the fine-grained Sebina sample was dumped, we are concerned about material blowing onto MAHLI’s lens and sticking to it,” Herkenhoff points out.

Editor’s Note:  I’ve taken a quick scan of new images from MAHLI and this issue looked to have occurred. However, word is that the MAHLI images that look as if they are dusted-over were acquired with the dust cover closed, through its Lexan(TM) window. The dust cover received a thin film of dust during Sol 0 terminal descent. That film has never really cleaned itself off, but researchers are able to image through it.