Sol 1425: Trying again to deliver drill sample to CheMin

8 August 2016

The second attempt to drill into Marimba went well, but the new drill sample was not transferred to CHIMRA due to a recurrence of the electrical short in the percussion mechanism.  Therefore, the sample was not delivered to CheMin as planned.  So we tried again on Sol 1425, this… Read More

Sols 1422-1424: It’s my party and I’ll drill if I want to…

5 August 2016

 Happy birthday Curiosity!  As we celebrate four Earth years of operations on Mars, Curiosity will be busy collecting another drill sample.  In honor of her birthday, check out all of the great science that we’ve accomplished in the last year in this video. Curiosity’s… Read More

Sol 1421: Determining drill activities at Marimba

5 August 2016

On Sol 1420 we planned a full drill hole on the target “Marimba” to characterize the composition of the Murray mudstone in this location.  However, we came in early this morning to find that the drill hole didn’t penetrate very far into this rock target, as seen in the above… Read More

Sol 1420: Drilling Marimba

3 August 2016

The Sol 1419 activities completed successfully, including cleaning the remaining Oudam sample out of CHIMRA.  So the focus of the Sol 1420 plan is drilling into the Marimba bedrock target.  But first, MAHLI will image the "noseprint" of the APXS contact sensor in the Oudam dump pile… Read More

Sol 1419: Cleaning CHIMRA

2 August 2016

The drilling campaign on Marimba continues, dominating the Sol 1419 plan.  Again, the tactical operations team was able to squeeze some additional science activities into the plan:  ChemCam and Mastcam will observe a laminated bedrock exposure called "Namibe," and the Right Mastcam… Read More

Sol 1418: Preparing to drill Marimba

1 August 2016

Today’s plan was all about setting up for our next drill hole. Originally there was going to be no science block at all, but we ended up with a little bit more power than expected, so we managed to fit in a ChemCam observation of the expected drill target, called “Marimba” along… Read More

Sols 1416-1417: Approaching the next drill target

29 July 2016

MSL drove another 44 meters on Sol 1414, into an area with larger blocks of bedrock.  This looks like a good area to drill into the Murray Formation, so nearby targets were selected and we are planning a short drive to position the vehicle for drilling.  But first, ChemCam and… Read More

Sols 1414-1416: Keep on truckin'

27 July 2016

MSL drove over 45 meters on Sol 1412, to a location with lots of bedrock exposed but most of it is coated by dust.  So again we decided not to deploy the arm and acquire lots of ChemCam data instead.  LIBS observations of targets named "Okahandja," "Swakopmund," and "Walvis Bay"… Read More

Sols 1412-1413: No touch, just Go!

25 July 2016

MSL is making good progress, driving almost 68 meters last weekend.  We had the option of taking some MAHLI images on Sol 1412, but decided to maximize the drive distance instead.  Before the drive, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe bedrock targets "Jamba" and "Huambo" and the Right… Read More

Sols 1409-1411: Finishing up at Bimbe

22 July 2016

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… Read More