Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3478. Distance driven since landing: 17.36 miles/27.94 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3479 duties.

“Despite the incredibly rough terrain surrounding Mirador butte,” reports Natalie Moore, a mission operations specialist at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California, the nearly 10-year-old rover successfully drove a net distance forward [of roughly 33 feet (10 meters) and roughly 7 feet (2 meters] in elevation.

Martian art

“Not only did the Sol 3476 drive succeed, but placed us perfectly in front of the most beautiful laminated outcrop, a true canvas of Martian art painted by nature herself,” Moore adds.

“Evidence of possible cross-bedding and fine-scale laminations here are so interesting there was an initial question of whether we should stay for extra contact science opportunities or keep with our plan to drive away on the first sol of this plan,” Moore notes.

Dust Removal Tool result. Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3478, May 19, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Energized discussion

It was decided to keep the robot’s drive planned for Sol 3478, which sparked an energized discussion on which types of science Mars researchers could fit in the limited time they have before continuing forward in the afternoon.

Moore said there were questions of which activities would provide the most useful science and that they were vehemently discussed: Should we prioritize using our Dust Removal Tool (DRT) to wipe away the atmospheric dust that blocks our view of grain-size? Or would using the DRT damage the undisturbed bedrock laminations and ruin a close-up view from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).

“Although scientists were certainly interested in the grain-size of this unit, getting those measurements from MAHLI images at this heading would most likely need low-level lighting from the afternoon sun: a seemingly impossible task,” Moore pointed out, “as we’ve kept our plan to drive away in the afternoon.”

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took 2 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this mosaic.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Try for all of it

In the end, the heat fell on the dedicated Rover Planners who decided to try for all of it.

First, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) was scheduled to do a short morning sniff of the laminated bedrock target researchers chose and named “Las Claritas.”

Then, MAHLI was slated to do the limbo to take a 6-frame angled mosaic surrounding Las Claritas to hopefully catch cross-bedding. Then the plan called for use of the DRT on the target itself and perform a MAHLI “full-suite” for grain-size which includes images of Las Claritas from 25 cm, 5 cm, and 2 cm away.

To get a sense of what Curiosity Rover Planners try to avoid navigating terrain, check out this Navcam image of the robot’s left front wheel at a recent parking spot.
Photo taken on May 17, 2022, Sol 3476, by Left Navigation Camera at drive 930, site number 95.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Planned drive

Besides this full sol of arm activities, Mastcam was also to carry out a stereo mosaic surrounding Las Claritas and two large farther-field mosaics covering the many outcrops around the rover, in addition to a host of other Mastcam images to document the state of our DRT and other instrument activity attempts.

Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) was slated to shoot its laser for spectrometry on a bedrock target nearby named “Maturin” and a micro image mosaic on a layered outcrop roughly 16 feet (5 meters) away.

Curiosity imagery taken by Mast Camera Left and Right on Sol 3476, May 17, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover’s planned drive is for roughly less than 100 feet (30 meters) generally south, putting the Mars machinery near the south-east corner of Mirador butte for more science.

“While we wait for our drive data to come down to Earth, our rover will take environmental observations of the sky to monitor dust activity and ChemCam will autonomously choose a target for a second laser spectrometry observation at our new location,” Moore reported. “From the entire team’s hard work, everyone is getting a piece of the Martian pie this time!”