Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

This is a black and white image of Temptation Hill. There are large boulders embedded on the sandy hill. There are other smaller hills in the background. “Temptation Hill,” the base of which is peppered with large “popcorn” nodules, large enough to be visible in this image taken by Curiosity’s Right Navigation Camera on Sol 3219 on August 26, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3221 duties.

Reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: “Recent workspaces have featured two types of textures – one smooth, one rougher with small nodules or grains apparent.”

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 3220, August 27, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In the last plan, the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) investigated the rougher material in the target “Smailholm.”

Shoot the laser

A recently scripted plan has the robot brushing and analyzing the smoother material in the target “Saltopus” with APXS, MAHLI and Mastcam.

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3220, August 27, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) is slated to shoot the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) laser at Saltopus, and an example of the smoother material at “Stainton.”

Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3220, August 27, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

“Mastcam will image the appropriately named ‘Temptation Hill,’ the base of which is peppered with large ‘popcorn’ nodules,” O’Connell-Cooper notes. “These are just out of reach, tempting us to swing over that way and spend some time there, but we are on a tight deadline, with our next drill campaign starting – so images will have to suffice!”

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3220, August 27, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

33^rd hole

Curiosity has a mission guideline to drill roughly every 82 feet (25 meters) of elevation gain.

Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3220, August 27, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Our last drill campaign was just six weeks ago, when we drilled at Pontours on sol 3170, but this weekend’s plan sees us gearing up to drill again, since we are now 25 meters higher,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.

“This weekend’s plan marks the first sol (“sol Zero”) of this drill campaign, as we get ourselves into position over the desired bedrock target,” O’Connell-Cooper reports. The robot is to wheel itself a short 49 feet (15 meters) to some promising looking bedrock, “whose chemical composition and physical properties will be assessed in the next plan to make sure we can safely drill our thirty-third hole on Mars!”