Sols 1634-1635: Back to nominal MAHLI planning
10 March 2017
MSL drove about 29 meters toward the south on Sol 1632, and is
in a good position for weekend activities. The MAHLI images taken on
Sol 1632
look good, and the dust cover is working properly, so MAHLI is ready to
return to nominal operations! The tactical planning team therefore
selected contact science targets on a block right in front of the rover
that shows interesting color variations. This bedrock block is too
close to the rover to allow ChemCam data to be safely acquired, so a
nearby exposure was selected for an analogous measurement and
named "Hurricane Mountain." I helped plan ChemCam observations today,
and picked a nearly-vertical layered bedrock target that we called
"Hardwood Mountain." Right Mastcam will image these targets and take a
4x3 mosaic of another bedrock block
dubbed "Rocky Mountain." Mastcam will also acquire a multispectral set
of images of "North Haven," a collection of pebbles near Hurricane
Mountain, and survey the sky in the afternoon. Then MAHLI will take 5
images of "Canada Falls" from various distances before the APXS is
placed on the first of 3 closely-spaced Canada Falls targets. After
sunset, APXS data will be gathered on all 3 spots, using the arm to reposition the instrument between integrations.
Early on
Sol 1635, Navcam will search for clouds and Mastcam will measure the
dust in the atmosphere. Later in the day, more drill diagnostic tests
are planned, followed by another set of Mastcam dust observations. Then
the rover will drive toward the nearby dune and acquire data that will
be used to select a target for the next drive, which will hopefully
position the rover well for contact science on the dune sand. 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.
