Sols 1409-1411: Finishing up at Bimbe

For the weekend plan, we have a bunch more observations of the interesting blocky deposit “Bimbe”. Sol 1409 starts off with a couple of Mastcam images: one of the target “Seeis” and another of the AEGIS target from Sol 1406. Mastcam also has a mosaic to provide more context for the Bimbe blocks. After that, ChemCam has observations of the targets “Seeheim”, “Wilhelmstal”, “Oranjemund”, and “Seeis”. MAHLI then will observe several Bimbe targets, and APXS will analyze two targets: “Funda” and “Zambezi”.

On Sol 1410, ChemCam has an observation of the target “Mariental” with support from Mastcam. After that, we drive and do the usual post-drive imaging. On Sol 1411, Mastcam has an observation of the rover deck to watch for dust and sand that end up on top of the rover. Originally the plan also had the RMI mosaic that I’ve been trying to acquire as well, but it had to be pulled from the plan yet again to save on data volume. I am starting to think this observation is cursed! I’ll have to try again next week.

by Ryan Anderson

-Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

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