By 
February 5th, 2022
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3376. Distance driven since landing is 16.82 miles/27.06 kilometers
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3378 tasks.
Reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the robot is leaving “The Prow” in its rearview mirror.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We’ll be checking off the last item on our ‘Prow vicinity investigation’ to-do list” with Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) observations on two bedrock targets named “Aji” and “Erico,” as well as Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations on a tilted block named “Cucurital” and bedrock target named “Rockstone.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Lots of images
“We’re also collecting a lot of images at this location,” Fraeman adds, with five planned Mastcam mosaics consisting of 494 individual frames between them, a 5×1 ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic, and Mastcam context images of the Cucurital and Rockstone ChemCam targets.
“Not enough imaging for you? We’ll snap even more Mastcam photos after our drive, with a 180 degree mosaic (that’s an additional 55 Mastcam frames for those keeping score at home) on top of our standard suite of post-drive images,” Fraeman explains.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Weekend plan
The weekend plan rounds out with some observations to monitor the environment around the rover, Fraeman adds, including a ChemCam passive sky observation on the third sol of the plan that will measure the composition of gases in the atmosphere.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now that Mars researchers have wrapped up their activities in the area, the planned drive is sending the rover several meters north, back the way it came.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are aiming for a passageway that will allow us to ascend back onto the Greenheugh pediment. Once we climb up, we’ll leave the Mt. Sharp group rocks behind for a while and get to explore the very different period of Mars’ history that is preserved in the Greenheugh pediment and superposed Gediz Vallis ridge,” Fraeman concludes.
Posted in Space News
