Sol 35 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Belly of the Rover
11 September 2012There were more cheers and applause when MAHLI images of the belly of the rover were displayed. The camera, which can focus at distances from 2 cm to infinity, is working perfectly! It also took pictures of its calibration target, which includes a 1909 Lincoln penny. The arm checkout also went… Read More
Sol 34 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: MAHLI Optics
10 September 2012Over a month into the mission, there are still cheers at JPL when first-time activities are completed successfully. Last night, the latest successes included the first Chemin X-ray diffraction pattern (of an empty sample cell), and the first MAHLI image with its dust cover open. Previous images… Read More
Sol 33 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Flexing the Arm
9 September 2012I arrived in Pasadena at about 10 PM last night, and went straight to JPL to catch up with the MSL team and start my transition to Mars time. My next shift starts at 9:15 PM tonight. I walked in during a science team meeting regarding "data management" which sounds boring but is very important… Read More
Sol 29 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Check-in with Opportunity
7 September 2012I was planning to stay on "Mars time" while in Flagstaff this week, but it would have meant less time with my family, so I haven't been sleeping very late. This has allowed me to call in to Mars Exploration Rover planning meetings at 9 AM and catch up with what Opportunity has been doing. After… Read More
Sol 27 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Compression Testing
2 September 2012The Sol 26 drive went well, and the images taken after the drive showed some interesting outcrops right in front of the rover. The focus of the Sol 27 plan is primarily the first sampling of Mars' atmosphere by the big SAM instrument, so there wasn't much time to do anything else. Now… Read More
Sol 26 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Mars Time
1 September 2012The best news today was that analysis of more detailed ChemCam engineering data showed that the problems noted a few sols ago were very minor and now completely understood, so the instrument can now be used again! While we suspected that the problem was not serious, it was very nice to receive… Read More
Sol 25 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Sunlight Versus Shadow
31 August 2012As predicted, we didn't receive enough data through MRO today to allow us to plan another drive. So while we wait for the images taken after the Sol 24 drive to arrive, we planned a bunch of images to be taken on Sol 25. I was MAHLI/MARDI Payload Uplink Lead 1 today, which means that my job was… Read More
Sol 24 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Autonomous Navigation
31 August 2012The highlight of the Sol 24 plan is to test some of the software that will allow the rover to avoid obstacles automatically. If the test, involving taking images and processing them onboard the rover, is successful the rover will drive farther toward our goal, called Glenelg. This location will… Read More
Sol 23 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Planning Day
30 August 2012The rover drivers are ready to test more advanced driving techniques and software, but we stayed put today to finish the last of the Mastcam characterization activities (the second half of the long-baseline stereo experiment). So we had more room for new science observations in today's plan than… Read More
Sol 22 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Late Data
28 August 2012After a day off, I'm back on shift as SOWG Chair for 3 days. We had a scare this morning when the Sol 21 data we expected to receive through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was not received on time. Just as we were starting to put together contingency plans for Sol 22, most of the data… Read More
