Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Mastcam Right image of rover’s drill, taken on Sol 1541, December 6, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Now in Sol 1542, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover continues to be plagued by a drill anomaly issue.

Investigation of the issue is continuing with more diagnostic tests planned.

“Again, no mobility or other arm activities will be planned, so the science team added only remote sensing observations,” reports Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Bedrock targets

The rover’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) is to be used to observe once again Hunters Beach to further investigate the chemical variations that the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument measured there previously.

Also on tap, ChemCam and Right Mastcam observations of bedrock targets “Sargent Mountain” and “Youngs Mountain.”

Curiosity’s Navcam and Mastcam are slated to take one more set of images at 8 AM on Sol 1543, to complete the photometry dataset started on Sol 1537, Herkenhoff adds.

Distant butte

Previously, Lauren Edgar of the USGS reported that a rover weekend plan returned some great remote sensing data, including a Mastcam image of “Ireson Hill” to investigate the stratigraphy exposed in a distant butte.

Curiosity Mastcam Right image of “Ireson Hill” taken on Sol 1539 December 4, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

While rover engineers worked on assessing the drill fault, the science team decided to carry out remote sensing duties and change detection observations.

That plan started with ChemCam observations of “Hunters Beach” and “Gorham Mountain” to investigate the chemistry of the Murray bedrock.

“Then we’ll acquire a Mastcam tau and crater rim extinction image to characterize the amount of dust in the atmosphere, followed by a Navcam dust devil search,” Edgar says.

Movement of sand

The plan also included a series of Hazcam observations taken approximately every hour until sunset, Edgar adds, and this will provide a very thorough dataset to monitor the movement of sand based on time of day.

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1541, December 6, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This is really important for planning Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) observations, “because we’ve noticed a lot of movement of fines through this area at this time of year, and we’ve mostly been taking MAHLI images with the dust cover closed to protect the instrument,” Edgar adds. “If we can better understand when and where the sand is most active, we can better plan MAHLI observations, and we can improve our understanding of the eolian environment.”

Eolian observations pertain to sand or rock material carried or arranged by the wind.