Sols 1477-1479: Rocky Road
30 September 2016Everything went well in our previous plan and we are making slow but steady progress over rough terrain toward our next drill location. We should get there by next weekend! Today’s plan starts off with a bunch of remote sensing on Sol 1477. Navcam has an atmospheric observation, followed by… Read More
Sols 1475-1476: Finishing up on Jwaneng
28 September 2016We're planning two sols, so it's been busier for me today as SOWG Chair. The science team had a lot of good ideas for new observations, so it was a challenge to fit them all into the plan, but in the end all went well. On Sol 1475, the arm will be moved out of the way to allow… Read More
Sol 1474: Murray cross-bedding
27 September 2016The 16-meter drive on Sol 1473 completed perfectly, placing the rover in position for contact science on an outcrop of cross-bedded Murray bedrock. The primary goal for Sol 1474 is to characterize the cross-bedding and measure grain sizes using MAHLI, and we were able to squeeze in a… Read More
Sol 1473: In search of a contact science location
26 September 2016Over the weekend Curiosity drove 43 m to the south, in search of a good place for contact science. Unfortunately, our present location is in a small valley, and we don’t have many good rock targets in the workspace. After evaluating the Mastcam drive direction imaging, we decided… Read More
Sol 1470-1472: Change of Plans
23 September 2016Our drive went nicely and we are already about halfway to our next drill site! Our original plan to head toward an outcrop called “Karasburg” had to be changed because it turned out to be covered in sand and not very steep, making it a less-desirable science target. So instead we are… Read More
Sol 1469: Leaving Murray Buttes
22 September 2016MSL drove over 87 meters on Sol 1468, toward an outcrop named "Karasburg." The Sol 1469 plan includes another drive toward Karasburg, after ChemCam and Mastcam sample a local bedrock target named "Cacolo" and a patch of brighter material dubbed "Malembo." Mastcam will also acquire… Read More
Sols 1467-1468: Finishing up at Quela
20 September 2016The activities planned for Sol 1466 are going well so far--the only problem is that the ChemCam observation of the Quela drill hole wall is slightly out of focus. So we'll try again on Sol 1467 with slightly modified ChemCam command parameters. We're planning two sols today, and… Read More
Sols 1463-1465: Trying Again
16 September 2016After doing the drill diagnostics, the team has decided to try drilling at Quela again over the weekend. Sol 1463 will start with ChemCam of some pebbles called “Omusati” and some veins called “Didimbo”. Mastcam will document both targets, and then do a tau measurement to… Read More
Sol 1466: A new drill hole
19 September 2016The second attempt to drill into Quela was successful, but there was a timing issue during sample manipulation in CHIMRA that resulted in premature halting of the Sol 1465 sequence. So on Sol 1466 we'll pick up where MSL stopped and sieve the new sample, dump the unsieved fraction, and… Read More
Sol 1462: Drill Troubleshooting and Remote Sensing
16 September 2016Unfortunately the Sol 1461 drilling activities did not complete as expected, so the Sol 1462 plan was focused on trying to understand the problem while also doing some remote sensing. The plan starts off with Mastcam multispectral observations of the target “Ekunha” on the nearby… Read More
