Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

This August 7 image was taken by Curiosity’s Navcam: Left B on Sol 1067.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Late last week, NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet wheeled its way for a drive of over 60 feet (19 meters). That Sol 1067 stroll put it back at “Missoula” for more targeted science.

“The goal is to perform a detailed study of the Stimson-Pahrump contact, and to determine the relative timing of some of the veins that we’ve observed here,” explains research geologist, Lauren Edgar, at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

The current plan calls for a lot of ChemCam analyses, with the instrument looking at four different Missoula targets. ChemCam makes use of a laser to analyze the elemental composition of vaporized materials from areas smaller than 1 millimeter on the surface of Martian rocks and soils.

“We’ll also acquire several Mastcam images to document those targets,” Edgar adds.

Passive observations

On Sol 1070, the action plans calls for acquiring a ChemCam passive observation on the target “Coombs” (“passive” means not firing the laser – there is passive collection of the spectrum of the target). A regular ChemCam LIBS observation on the target “Stenerson” is on the books.

Following drilling operations by Curiosity, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, took this image on Sol 1060.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Over the past weekend, Curiosity was to perform a number of environmental monitoring activities, to assess the opacity of the atmosphere and search for dust devils, Edgar notes.

After thoroughly investigating this outcrop with ChemCam, the robot was to resume its drive through Marias Pass on Sol 1070. The robot was to take post-drive imaging to prepare for science this week.

This Curiosity rover image was taken August 5 by Mastcam: Right on Sol 1065.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS