By 
August 7th, 2020
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Left B Camera photo taken on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now engaged in the start of Sol 2846 duties.
There has been confirmation that the planned Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite specimen bake was successful, reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 2844, August 6, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A Sol 2846-2848 plan has been scripted.
Supplementary analysis
“This weekend we will therefore continue with activities to further analyze the “Mary Anning” drilled sample,” Fraeman notes. “On the first sol of the plan we will prepare SAM for analyzing the sample in a slightly different way, and we are planning to do this supplementary analysis early next week.”
The Chemical and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin for short, performs chemical analysis of powdered rock samples to identify the types and amounts of different minerals that are present.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The second sol of the plan contains Chemistry and Camera analyses of two targets named “Clamshell Cove” and “Musselburgh.”
Mars researchers will also analyze the portion of the Mary Anning sample that was already delivered to the robot’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) for a second night.
The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer is called APXS for short. When it is placed right next to a rock or soil surface, it uses two kinds of radiation to measure the amounts and types of chemical elements that are present.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Argon on the atmosphere
On the third sol of the plan, Fraeman adds, Curiosity will measure the amount of argon in the atmosphere with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), collect more information about the walls of the drill hole with ChemCam, and image a small trough near Curiosity named “Upper Ollach.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo taken on Sol 2843, August 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Today was a very smooth planning day overall,” Fraeman concludes, “which is always a nice thing to be able to say when you’re operating a science laboratory on another planet from your couch!”
Posted in Space News
