Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity’s location as on Sol 3880. Distance driven tp date: 18.82 miles/30.29 kilometers.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3881 duties.

The rover recently wrapped up a busy weekend on Mars and a four-sol plan over the 4th of July holiday. It was executed as expected, but planning post-holiday was unusual because new images of the terrain in front of the wheeled robot could not be loaded into planning software.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Although researchers were not able to select Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam observations, the science team put together a plan and drive for sols 3880 and 3881.

That’s the report from Sharon Wilson, a planetary geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Fin-like, gray vein

The rover has used its Dust Removal Tool (DRT) plus its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), and Mastcam multispectral data to characterize the bedrock at “Roghi” – as well as making a MAHLI observation of “Xerocambos,” a fin-like, gray vein sticking out of the bedrock, Wilson explains.

A large Mastcam mosaic of the layered butte named “Chenapau” was also in the plan.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“The science team planned ChemCam AEGIS activities on both sols; AEGIS is an acronym for Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science and is a mode where the rover identifies and selects a geological target from navigation camera images based on a set of guidelines set by scientists on the team,” Wilson adds.

Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) produced photo on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Impact craters

A full slate of environmental team atmospheric observations round out the plan, including images and movies to monitor clouds, a tau observation to monitor dust, and a dust devil survey.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A slated drive of 164 feet (50-meters) was to get the robot closer to an exciting cluster of impact craters on Curiosity’s route.

As always, dates of planned rover activities described in reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.