Sols 1039-1040: Livin' on the Edge
8 July 2015I'm MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead today, and was ready this morning to plan lots of MAHLI imaging of the bright rocks on the slope the rover first climbed on Sol 991. But the data received after the 5.5-meter drive on Sol 1037 showed that the left front wheel is perched right at the top… Read More
Sols 1037-1038: Familiar Terrain
6 July 2015Over the weekend holiday plan, Curiosity drove back to our location on Sol 992. Previous DAN and ChemCam data from this site showed some interesting results, so we want to investigate this region in more detail. The front Hazcam image above shows our wheel tracks from the last time we were… Read More
Sol 1033-1036: Independence Day Planning!
2 July 2015To paraphrase our SOWG chair’s paraphrasing of the Declaration of Independence at the start of today’s SOWG meeting: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to plan a 4 sol plan, we assemble a group of patriots to make that plan. And that’s what we did… Read More
Sol 1032: Lots of Contact Science!
1 July 2015Phew! Today was a busy day on Mars! Ken and I were both on operations today, picking up where Lauren left off yesterday. Ken was helping with ChemCam science in the geology and mineralogy (GeoMin) theme group, and I was the GeoMin Keeper of the Plan (KOP). We started off the day admiring… Read More
Sol 1031: A Dog’s Eye View at Missoula
30 June 2015Today we planned some MAHLI imaging along the contact near the “Missoula” target (the ledge in the upper left portion of this Navcam image). We refer to it as a dog’s eye mosaic, meaning that we use the MAHLI camera to take a series of images along a vertical face… Read More
Sol 1030: Bumping to Missoula
29 June 2015Curiosity is still investigating the contact between the Pahrump and Stimson units. Over the weekend, Curiosity acquired MAHLI images on a coarse-grained rock named “Big Arm” (above). The goal today is to characterize some of the veins that occur above and below the… Read More
Sols 1027-1029: Resuming tactical operations
26 June 2015Mars has passed through solar conjunction, and reliable communication with the spacecraft at Mars is possible again. As planning started this morning, we were still waiting for more data to be relayed by the orbiters to confirm that MSL is ready to resume science planning, but… Read More
Sols 1003-1004: Last tactical planning before solar conjunction
1 June 2015Today is the last day of MSL tactical operations until after solar conjunction, so this will probably be the last MSL update for a few weeks. Ryan Anderson and I are both on shift as payload uplink lead today, but because the instruments we're representing (ChemCam and MAHLI/MARDI,… Read More
Sols 1000-1002: Photometry
29 May 2015We're planning 3 sols of MSL activities today, starting with Sol 1000! As we continue to prepare for solar conjunction, arm motion is allowed in this plan, but no contact science. The plan starts with ChemCam and Mastcam observations of a platy rock called "Newland" and a… Read More
Sol 999: Last MAHLI images before conjunction
28 May 2015Today is the last day we can plan MAHLI activities before the operational stand-down for solar conjunction, to ensure that we have time to confirm that MAHLI's dust cover is safely closed. So we worked to include as many MAHLI images as possible in the Sol 999 plan, making for a rather hectic… Read More
