By 
August 16th, 2016
Look out below! Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo of balancing boulder taken on Sol 1428, August 12, 2016.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now at work on Sol 1432, returning some terrific landscape imagery.
According to Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, the rover’s weekend plan went well.
Add on to the robot’s current activities a drive of some 170 feet (52 meters) across a patch of sand.
Boulder balancing act
Curiosity’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) instrument is on tap to observe the target “Longa” and Mastcam has two mosaics of the nearby buttes, Anderson notes.
A recent ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) image shows a precariously balanced rock – a feature seen earlier but the new image catches its hazardous-looking situation.
Panorama of the “Murray Buttes” shows a boulder that appears to be precariously balanced.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1387 July 1, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Beautiful buttes
After the rover’s drive, post-drive imaging is scheduled, and some onboard data processing of Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the “Marimba” drill hole, as well as some Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) data processing are also in the plan.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1429, August 13, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
In the morning of Sol 1433, the script calls for atmospheric observations with Curiosity’s Navcam and Mastcam, “although one of them had to be removed from the plan,” Anderson notes, “when we realized that one of the nearby buttes was blocking our view of the crater rim!”
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1432, August 16, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Posted in Space News
