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February 6th, 2018
Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image taken on Sol 1956, February 5, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 1957 operations.
During Sols 1957-1958, the robot is to make its way toward a gray patch on Mars, reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
“Over the past several months we’ve made excellent progress up and along the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), taking stunning mosaics and using our instrument payload to examine the local geology,” Kronyak notes.
Plans for sols 1957-1958 call for continuing rover VRR investigations and carry out a drive further along to a next area of interest.
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Right B photo acquired on Sol 1956, February 5, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
SAM troubles
Kronyak reports that, unfortunately, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite experienced a minor fault over the weekend, “so we’ll be delaying those activities – a preconditioning test for an upcoming geochronology experiment – to Wednesday’s (Sol 1959) plan.”
Sol 1957 is to begin with two Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) observations on the targets “South Harris” and “Drummock.”
“We got our first taste of Drummock over the weekend with ChemCam and decided to analyze it again to better understand geochemical variations within the rocks around the rover,” Kronyak adds. “We’ll take Mastcam images to document these ChemCam targets”.
“Bloodstone Hill” area as observed by Curiosity’s ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager Sol 1955 February 4, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Further investigation
Also on tap is taking a Mastcam mosaic of “Bloodstone Hill,” another target from the weekend plan that warranted further investigation.
Another Mastcam observation in the plan is called a sky column, Kronyak points out, “which we use to periodically monitor material around the Mastcam sunshade.” +
Lastly for this sol, the robot will make a couple of Navcam movies to search for dust devils and cloud activity.
New drive
In the afternoon of Sol 1957, Curiosity is scheduled to drive nearly 200 feet (60 meters) to wheel itself in front of an area identified from orbit to contain an interesting gray patch of bedrock. Following that drive, the rover will take standard post-drive images to set Mars researchers up for remote and contact science on Wednesday.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1955, February 4, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
On the second sol, Sol 1958, science activities are primarily dedicated to environmental observations.
“First, we’ll use ChemCam to conduct a Passive Sky observation. Next, we’ll use Mastcam to take a series of images that help us measure both the amount of dust and the optical depth of the atmosphere,” Kronyak adds.
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) product from Sol 1955, February 4, 2018. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Lastly, the robot is to perform standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) activities in the plan.
Posted in Space News
