By 
September 9th, 2023
Curiosity Right Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3940, September 6, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3943 duties.
“The rover is currently driving across bumpy terrain consisting of rounded bedrock sticking up between dark sand and drift as she drives south, and slightly uphill, along the Mt. Sharp Ascent Route,” reports Sharon Wilson Purdy, a planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Due to the rugged ground, Purdy adds, the rover sometimes ends a drive with a wheel or two perched on a rock.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3941, September 7, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
When that happens, as the robot recently did, researchers are unable to safely unstow the arm to do contact science.
Sand and bedrock interaction
“We pivoted and planned a [Chemistry and Camera Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy] ChemCam LIBS observation of target “Eleusis” to characterize the composition of smooth bedrock in our workspace.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3942, September 8, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A nearby exposure of bedrock was documented by a Mastcam stereo mosaic of the “Kechries” target.
Curiosity also took a Mastcam stereo image of a nearby trough to investigate the interaction between the sand and bedrock.
Off in the distance, Mars team members planned a Mastcam multispectral image and a long distance ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo of “Kukenan” to further characterize and document the varying textures and layers within the butte.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3942, September 8, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Never a dull moment
A recent plan called for a drive of roughly 75 feet (23 meters) in a scripted 2-sol plan (Sols 3941-3942).
Curiosity was slated to collect environmental data including surveys to monitor dust devil activity, a movie to monitor cloud movement, and a solar tau to measure the optical depth of the atmosphere and to constrain aerosol scattering properties, Purdy reports.
“The science team ended the day with a look-ahead to Curiosity’s weekend plan,” Purdy concluded, “with lots of images to take and data to collect it’s never a dull moment for this rover on Earth or on Mars!”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3942, September 8, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ridge – a relatively late feature
In an earlier report, Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick, noted the rover continues to acquire imaging of the Gediz Vallis ridge “in order to help us understand how this relatively late feature within Gale crater formed.”
Thompson said researchers continue to acquire imaging of the Gediz Vallis ridge in order to better understand how this relatively late feature within Gale crater formed.
“The abundant large blocks contained within the ridge deposits indicate a relatively high energy environment, e.g., a landslide, a flooding event or maybe glacial activity,” Thompson observed.
Laser pulsed target. Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3942, September 8, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Ridge deposits – questions
And there are many questions related to the ridge deposits, Thompson noted:
How do the included blocks relate to other rocks already encountered within Gale crater, and to the exposed stratigraphy higher up Mount Sharp?”
Are there separate packages or layers of sediment within the ridge that might represent different depositional events and processes?”
Are there noticeable changes in the ridge as we drive from north to south?
What is the nature of the contact with the sulfate-bearing unit?
A large Mastcam mosaic was on tap to be acquired, photography to help Mars scientists continue to address these questions. “To continue looking at the layering and structure within the Kukenan butte, and to aid in determining how the stratigraphy fits with what we are driving over, ChemCam will take a long distance RMI mosaic of the butte,” Thompson added.
Posted in Space News
