Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity rover overlooking a canyon of rocks on the Mars surface and was taken by Right Navigation Camera onboard Curiosity on Sol 3872, June 28, 2023. You can faintly see rover tracks in the center of the image, left behind as the robot slowly made its way up the hill.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale crater is now performing Sol 3877 duties.

“We made it!” That’s the report from Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

“We are peeking up over the edge of the ridge that we have been trying to climb for a few weeks now. The view ahead is spectacular but it’s worth pausing for a minute to look back down into the canyon,” O’Connell-Cooper adds. “Lots of slipping and sliding, and drives ending too soon or terminating on precarious footings, but we finally made it!”

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera taken on Sol 3874, June 30, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Brushed bedrock

A recently scripted plan calls for a “Touch and Go” activity.

Before the robot pushes out onto the ridge, researchers will characterize the local bedrock at “Madero” with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on some brushed bedrock.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3875, July 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“This workspace has mineral veins running perpendicular to the rock layers and fragments of a dark layer that is parallel to the other layers,” O’Connell-Cooper notes.

Vertical vein

“MAHLI will image a vertical vein at “Vesini” to look at its relationship to the host bedrock and some of the dark layer around the vein, reports O’Connell-Cooper whilst the Chemistry and Camera’s (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument will analyze a vein fragment at “Mega Spilaio.”

Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left photo taken on Sol 3873, June 29, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mastcam will acquire a multispectral image of the same target and was also slated to take four stereo mosaics in a recently scripted plan.

Crater cluster

“The largest mosaic (28 images) looks at the nearby crater cluster, as well as further ahead to “Gediz Vallis ridge” and the “Texoli” butte. Two smaller mosaics look at laminations and erosionally resistant features in bedrock in this area and an area of more active sand,” O’Connell-Cooper points out.

The smallest mosaic (3 images) uses color Mastcam imagery to support a black and white ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) observation, which focuses on erosionally resistant features in the direction of Curiosity’s drive.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3875, July 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Slip-and-slide

“Our drive on the afternoon of the first sol [Sol 3873] is relatively short, [about 50 feet (15 meters)] further out onto the ridge,” O’Connell-Cooper adds, “where we hope to catch up on an important housekeeping chore in the upcoming 4th of July long weekend plan.”

Full MAHLI Wheel Imaging (FMWI) uses a combination of Mastcam and MAHLI to image the rover’s wheels and monitor them for wear and tear, and was last done just before Thanksgiving.

“This activity needs some flat ground to be executed, so it had to be delayed while we were playing slip-and-slide on the hill and we are hoping to get it done as soon as possible now in order to keep to our routine cadence (every 1000 meters),” O’Connell-Cooper observes.

Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) RMI taken on Sol 3876, July 2, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

Dust devils, clouds

Environmental researchers have planned some basic tau measurements for this plan, where Mastcam will help to measure dust in the atmosphere.

Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) RMI taken on Sol 3876, July 2, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

On the second sol of the plan, the Environmental Continuous Air Monitor (ECAM) will look for dust devils and survey the clouds overhead in Gale.

The plan rounds out with scheduled Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) data collections, for a full suite of environmental activities, O’Connell-Cooper concludes.