By 
July 20th, 2018
Curiosity Navcam Left B photo acquired on Sol 2116, July 20, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2116 duties.
Reports Ken Herkenhoff, a planetary geologist for the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona: “The Sol 2115 wheel imaging went well, and we received the images needed to plan a drive back to ‘Sgurr of Eigg,’ near the Sol 1999 rover position.”
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image acquired on Sol 2116, July 20, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
On the plan is a drive of over 160 feet (50 meters) during Sol 2116, along with time for continued atmospheric and other scientific observations.
Autonomous exploration
Before the drive, Herkenhoff adds, the Right Mastcam will image the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) target selected by Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) software on Sol 2115 and Navcam will monitor the opacity of the atmosphere.
Curiosity Mastcam Left photo taken on Sol 2115, July 19, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
After the drive and the standard post-drive imaging needed to plan weekend activities, Mastcam will measure the atmospheric opacity and ChemCam will observe another target selected by AEGIS.
Measuring dust and wind
Early in the morning of Sol 2117, Mastcam and Navcam will again monitor opacity, and Navcam will look for clouds overhead and near the horizon to measure wind velocity.
“Earth and Mars are getting closer to each other this month, and by the end of this month Mars will be closer to Earth than it has been since 2003! Mars is visible low in the southeast after evening twilight,” Herkenhoff advises. If you have a good telescope, you can monitor the progress of the global dust storm that is being intensely studied from spacecraft orbiting Mars as well as by Curiosity.
New road map
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Meanwhile, a new Curiosity rover location map for Sol 2115 has been issued.
Curiosity Mastcam Left photo taken on Sol 2115, July 19, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 2115 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (July 19, 2018).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up.
From Sol 2108 to Sol 2115, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 3.89 feet (1.19 meters).
Since touching down in Bradbury Landing in August 2012, Curiosity has driven 12.05 miles (19.39 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity Mastcam Left photo taken on Sol 2115, July 19, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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