Sols 1632-1633: Contact science on "Spring Point"
8 March 2017The MSL rover drove a little over 40 meters on Sol 1630, to a place
with bedrock blocks surrounded by dark sand. There's a bright block
with parallel linear features in the arm workspace,
so the tactical team decided to plan contact science on those
features. This made for an exciting day for me as MAHLI/MARDI uplink
lead! The MAHLI image through the closed dust cover that was planned
for Sol 1630 was successfully acquired, so we're planning to acquire a
similar image of the APXS target "Spring Point" on Sol 1632. MAHLI
diagnostic images of its calibration target and more drill diagnostic
tests are also planned for Sol 1632, along with ChemCam and Right
Mastcam observations of Spring Point and a nearby target named "Nine
Lake." Right Mastcam will also take an image of a laminated rock dubbed
"Grand Pitch" before the rover drives away.
On Sol
1633, Navcam will search for dust devils and ChemCam will again use
AEGIS to autonomously select and observe a target in the rover's new
location. Finally, MARDI will take another image during twilight. If
all goes well, we'll be able to return to normal MAHLI operations this
weekend!
by Ken Herkenhoff
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.