Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3976, October 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3977 duties.

Curiosity is now in position to start new drill operations, as early as this weekend, reports Conor Hayes, a graduate student at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

“Drilling and the activities that accompany it can be quite power-intensive, which means that we have less flexibility in planning other observations,” Hayes notes.

A Left Navcam image from sol 3974, October 11, 2023, showing off the nameplate on the rover’s arm and Curiosity’s next drill target “Sequoia” just right of center.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Drill target

To initiate the robot’s next drilling stint, the plan calls for unstowing the rover’s arm to do some pre-drilling investigation of the drill target “Sequoia.”

This includes use of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) as well as Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) imaging before and after clearing away the dust on Sequoia with the Dust Removal Tool (DRT), Hayes adds.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3975, October 12, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We will then perform what’s known as a ‘preload test’ where we will place the drill down on Sequoia (without activating the drill) to see how the rock responds to that force,” Hayes reports. “The results of the preload test will be documented by MAHLI.”

The recently scripted plan calls for use of the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) device to investigate the target “Saddlehorn,” take some Mastcam images of the future site of the Sequoia drill hole, and image the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite inlet covers with Mastcam and Navcam.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo of inlet covers taken on Sol 3975, October 12, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The first sol of this plan (Sol 3975) finishes off with some evening APXS integrations.

Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3976, October 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

Atmospheric dust

On the second sol of the plan (Sol 3976), the rover was slated to wake up and perform Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) activities, including a LIBS observation of “Kern River,” some passive (no LIBS) observations with Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) imaging of Sequoia, and RMI imaging of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge, Hayes points out.  

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3976, October 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The robot’s Mastcam will then document the aftermath of the two LIBS activities in this plan.

“We will finish off with a 4×1 Navcam mosaic of the north crater rim,” Hayes reports, “to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere between the rover and the edge of Gale Crater.”

Also on the plan, routine observations from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) tools “as we look forward to drilling another hole in the Martian surface in the coming sols,” Hayes concludes.