Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 2047, May 10, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 2048 after completing a successful bump, a short drive that was slated for Sol 2046, reports Ken Herkenhoff, a planetary geologist at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona.

The robot is now in a good position for contact science on a couple of bright blocks in front of the Mars machinery.

Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 2047, May 10, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Two targets

The current plan, Herkenhoff explains, calls for Curiosity to brush two targets on the larger block, named “Bilbert” and “Giants Range,” before Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images them and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) measures their chemistry at night.

Before the arm activities, the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) will shoot its laser at Giants Range and targets “Vermillion” and “Lac La Croix” on nearby blocks.

Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 2047, May 10, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Contact science

“Because the stowed arm partly blocks our view of the part of the arm workspace closest to the rover, we’ll acquire a Navcam stereo pair and a single Left Mastcam color image of that area after the arm is deployed,” Herkenhoff adds. “These images will be useful in planning more contact science this weekend.”