Sols 1114-1115: Contact science on Big Sky

23 September 2015

The 14-meter Sol 1112 drive completed as planned, and the rover is in a good position for contact science.  There are flat areas in front of the rover that are suitable for drilling, so the Sol 1114 plan includes DRT brushing, MAHLI imaging, and APXS measurements of a target named… Read More

Sol 1112-1113: Rough Driving

21 September 2015

The drive on Sol 1111 stopped early after just over 15 meters because we were driving over rough terrain and part of the rover’s suspension exceeded the allowed amount of tilt (this is not a physical limit, just a threshold in the software that tells the rover to stop and check with Earth to… Read More

Sols 1109-1111: Contact Science on Bright Outcrop

18 September 2015

The plan for the weekend is to do a detailed analysis of the outcrop in front of us and then drive away and do some untargeted observations. Sol 1109 includes ChemCam observations of the targets "Cody" and "Leroy", plus a Navcam dust devil search. After that, the rover will brush the dust off… Read More

Sol 1108: Limited data for planning

17 September 2015

The 16.6-meter drive planned for Sol 1107 completed as planned, placing the rover in front of the bright outcrop of interest.  As expected, only a few post-drive images were received in time for Sol 1108 planning, which made it more difficult than usual to pick targets for remote sensing… Read More

Sol 1106: Searching for the Next Drilling Location

15 September 2015

After some additional contact science on the Murray formation (of the location shown in the above Mastcam image), we’re now in search of a good sandstone for our next drill target. The goal of today’s plan is to drive towards a bright patch of blocky outcrop that was first identified… Read More

Sol 1105: Murray Formation Contact Science

14 September 2015

Over the weekend, Curiosity had a successful ~ 21 m drive, and we’re currently parked in front of a beautiful outcrop of the Murray formation (shown in the bottom half of the above Navcam image, overlain by Stimson).  We’ve mostly been driving through the Stimson unit for the… Read More

Sols 1102-1104: Arm error recovery

11 September 2015

The Sol 1101 activities that we planned yesterday did not complete due to an arm error while it was being stowed.  Apparently the shoulder azimuth motor was too cold, so the rover software halted the stow, which precluded the drive that was to follow.  The rover is therefore in the same… Read More

Sol 1101: Driving into the Saddle

10 September 2015

The 34-meter drive planned for Sol 1100 placed the rover at the edge of the small plateau, as intended, with a good view of a bright Murray Formation outcrop.  The center of the Murray outcrop is the target of the drive planned for Sol 1101, which will hopefully put the vehicle in… Read More

Sol 1100: Swan, Sunburst, Studhorse, Sweetgrass Arch, and Silver Hill

9 September 2015

The rover drove 34.5 meters on Sol 1099, as planned, to a good location for the imaging of the northwest wall of Bridger Basin.  The Mastcam team verified that the pointing of the mosaic of that wall, planned to occur early on Sol 1100, is excellent.  So the Sol 1100 plan includes… Read More

Sol 1099: Driving again

8 September 2015

MSL did well over the long weekend, except that the Sol 1098 drive was halted after 13 meters of the planned 25 meters because the rover could not confirm that the path ahead was safe.  So the plan for the Sol 1099 drive is essentially to complete the rest of the previously planned… Read More