By 
August 3rd, 2018
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 2126, July 30, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing 2130 duties.
The robot is currently on its way to a potentially softer rock target to drill in the Pettegrove Point member of Vera Rubin Ridge, reports Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 2129, August 2, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Bedrock workspace
The geology theme group planned several autonomously targeted Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) observations of bedrock in the workspace. In addition, plans called for producing a Mastcam mosaic of the workspace and a Navcam mosaic of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) targetable region to prepare for targeting in the weekend plan.
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 2126, July 30, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The environmental theme group was also to perform two Mastcam tau and crater rim extinction observations, a Navcam line of sight and dust devil movie, and Navcam suprahorizon and zenith movies.
Dust storm assessment
“All of this great environmental monitoring data will help as we continue to assess the ongoing dust storm,” Edgar says.
“Looking ahead, we hope to proceed with science activities and driving in the weekend plan with the help of the Mars Odyssey spacecraft to relay data,” Edgar concludes.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Road map
Meanwhile, a new Curiosity traverse map through Sol 2128 has been issued.
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 2128 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (August 02, 2018).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).
From Sol 2126 to Sol 2128, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 146.88 feet (44.77 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 12.18 miles (19.60 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Posted in Space News
