Sol 778 Update On Curiosity From USGS Scientist Lauren Edgar: MAHLI recovery

Over the weekend, Curiosity was supposed to perform a number of MAHLI activities to image the drill hole and the target Morrison, along with APXS on Morrison, but unfortunately an arm fault occurred during the observation of the drill hole.  This left MAHLI with its cover open.  Fortunately, some JPL engineers came in on Saturday to make a recovery plan and successfully closed the MAHLI cover.  A team of engineers is working to better understand the arm faults before we use MAHLI again.  And even though today is a holiday, the rover doesn’t have the day off so we are planning some remote sensing and CheMin analysis.  The Sol 778 plan includes ChemCam of the targets “Whirlwind,” “Kings Peak,” “Red Rock” and “Bald Mountain,” to characterize the nearby rocks and sand ripples.  The plan also includes Mastcam imaging of the southwest valley walls to investigate the local stratigraphy, along with some Navcam observations to monitor the atmosphere.  

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.