By 
April 9th, 2022
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3438, April 8, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3439 duties.
“We successfully drove further down off of the “Greenheugh pediment” as we head toward smoother driving pathways downhill,” reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland. “However, the chaotic jumble of terrain we encountered in the final few rolls of our wheels left a couple of our wheels perched awkwardly.”
That meant the robot could not get out its arm for contact science, lest the large arm swinging around might cause the rover to shift unexpectedly.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3438, April 8, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“It also meant that our rover drivers wanted to scoot the rover off of the offending terrain to put all six wheels on terra firma (or the Martian equivalent) before attempting another drive,” Minitti adds. Thus, a recent drive aims to reposition the rover for observations this weekend.
Layered bedrock
Before the repositioning, the plan called for an extensive set of imaging and analyses with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3438, April 8, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
ChemCam will acquire chemistry from a beautifully layered bedrock outcrop, “Fort Charlotte,” and will acquire a Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic from the top section of Gediz Vallis Ridge, which researchers can still see despite dropping in elevation in our last drive.
“Mastcam will acquire three mosaics to cover the intricate bedrock structures in this area,” Minitti notes. Two of these mosaics center on the bedrock ridge dubbed “Feorachas” on Curiosity’s first pass through this area.
“The ridge, and the linear features extending away from it, are of great interest for what they might reveal about the history of this part of the pediment,” Minitti explains.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left photo taken on Sol 3437, April 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Weekend plans
The third mosaic centers on the bedrock in the workspace in front of the rover, which will come in handy as scientists (hopefully) plan contact science within it over the weekend.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left photo taken on Sol 3437, April 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“We will also look skyward, with a Navcam image to monitor the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and a Navcam cloud movie. After we settle our wheels, we plan to acquire an automated ChemCam raster from the surrounding bedrock, a ChemCam passive observation of the atmosphere, a Mastcam tau measurement, and a Navcam dust devil survey,” Minitti reports.
The rover is scheduled to acquire a Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) active measurement after its drive to complement the longer DAN passive measurements that span parts of each sol.
Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) are slated to make their systematic measurements throughout both sols (Sols 3437-3438).
Minitti concludes: “Here’s hoping the weekend goes off without a hitch!”
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left and Right photos taken on Sol 3437, April 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Posted in Space News
