Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity’s location on Sol 3867. Distance driven to date: 18.73 miles/30.14 kilometers
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale crater is now performing Sol 3867 duties.

In a fresh plan, the robot completed a drive taking it near, or just past the border of a new quad, reports Scott VanBommel, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 3867, June 23, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“A quad, or quadrangle, is an area outlined where the rover may explore,” VanBommel explains. Several quads were outlined within Gale crater before Curiosity landed, each roughly 1.3 kilometers across.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3867, June 23, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Each quad has a theme based on a significant geologic feature on Earth, and the quads themselves are named after small towns near those geologic features,” VanBommel adds. “The regions where the geologic features are found dictates the names given to targets and features explored by the rover in that quad. Many quads are never visited by the rover.”

Curiosity Mast Camera Right B Navigation image taken on Sol 3866, June 22, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Target names

A recent plan had Curiosity drive far enough to find itself in the “Kalavryta Quad,” named after a town in Greece.

“And with that, we had a fresh set of new names to choose from, including target names such as ‘Kastria Spring,’ ‘Feneos, ‘Niamata,’ and ‘Kerpini.’”

Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 3866, June 22, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

In a scripted two-sol plan (Sols 3866-3867) Curiosity started by completing Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam activities, including analyses of Feneos.

A Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) passive analysis and environmental activities followed with the rover then brushing the Kastria Spring target before imaging with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and commencing a two-spot Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) analysis.

Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3866, June 22, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Curiosity also completed a MAHLI mosaic of the Feneos target.

Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 3866, June 22, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Before and after analysis

“The second sol of the plan focused on additional imaging activities, with Mastcam images of Niamata, Kerpini, and Kastria Spring, the latter of which included images before and after analysis by the ChemCam laser,” VanBommel adds.

Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 3866, June 22, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover then completed yet another drive (with a planned distance of ~40 m) and acquired the necessary post-drive imaging before the decisional Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) pass which is to relay the data necessary before the next tactical day kicks off, VanBommel concludes.