Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale crater is now performing Sol 3885 duties.

“Few things are better than planning an action-packed weekend on Mars. It’s even better when the last plan executed like a charm,” reports Natalie Moore, a mission operations specialist at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Last week, on Wednesday, the wheeled robot made it over 144 feet (44 meters), placing it in “veiny, layered bedrock heaven,” Moore added. “We’re still headed towards a local cluster of craters, roughly 490 feet (150 meters) to the east, and my Mastcam brain is excited for a far-field imaging campaign when we get there.”

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Weekend routine

In the meantime, the rover is using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to plan some close (and some extremely close) images of the terrain in front of it. “And since the downlink arrived as expected, Curiosity is in great shape for her classic weekend routine,” Moore reported July 7.

Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

On the first sol (3882) in that weekend plan, the rover was to wake up and spend time organizing her data from the previous plan, Moore added. “After a leisurely mid-morning nap she’ll start her first science activities.

Those were to include: Mastcam stereo mosaic of Kukenan butte in the far distance, a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) 5-spot raster of a nicely-layered block in the workspace named “Akrata,” a Mastcam-Right documenting image of the LIBS laser spots, and a Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) measurement in parallel with those instruments to measure any water-related atoms present in the ground.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The robot was scheduled to take another nap to prepare for arm activities later that day.

Swish the dust away

“What does a Martian rover do on a Saturday evening? Stick her cupcake-sized [Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer] (APXS) on some dust-free rocks and ‘sniff’ the surface chemistry of course! But first, she has to pre-game with some dust-clearing and MAHLI images while the sun is still up,” Moore explains.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Last weekend, the plan called for picking a layered bedrock target for use of the Dust Removal Tool (DRT) to swish the dust away and named it “Desino.”

“After brushing Desino, it’s time to take our usual Mastcam-Right images of the DRT for documentation and head into some major MAHLI imaging,” Moore notes. Starting with a dark, plate-like target named ‘Planitero,’ MAHLI was to take images at 25 centimeters and 5 centimeters from the surface.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera on Sol 3881, July 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Bedrock layers

“Then we have an exciting 2×3 mosaic planned of some bedrock layers at ChemCam’s Akrata LIBS target,” Moore reports, “for a total of 6 images at best focus (actually, we take 8 images at difference focus values for each mosaic position to make sure we’re getting the best focus possible in addition to an extra full frame – so that’s really 54 images, plus 6 subframes. It’s a MAHLI party!”

In a past plan, Curiosity did a similar type of mosaic along a vertical fin, and the surrounding bedrock showing the type of layers Mars researchers are hoping to get in last weekend’s mosaic.

For the MAHLI’s finale, the rover was slated to take images of dust-cleared Desino at 25 centimeters, 5 centimeters, and 2 centimeters from the target’s surface.

Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Western-like heading

“On a side note – this is our first western-like heading in quite some time and for MAHLI that means much better chance at full-sun image lighting, which is almost always preferred,” Moore explains.

Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

After the MAHLI party, APXS will settle into some surface sniffing – starting with Planitero and ending with Desino. “It’s an early night for Curiosity, but she’ll be awake in intermittently to send the sol’s data to Earth via orbiters when they pass overhead,” Moore points out.

Local craters

For the second sol (3883), Curiosity will have another late morning and start her science activities around noon.

Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3880, July 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mastcam was scheduled to take a multispectral stereo frame (in 7 wavelength filters for each camera) of Desino and a couple, smaller stereo mosaics of the vertical rock fins and sand cracks around the rover.

ChemCam will shoot another bedrock target named “Skotani” with LIBS and Mastcam follows up with the usual documentation image of the laser-induced spots.

“Then it’s time to pack it up and drive away!” A stroll of roughly 55 feet (17 meters) last Sunday was to hopefully get Curiosity closer to the local craters in the distance, Moore concludes, “and put some more interesting bedrock in the workspace for Monday’s planning.”