Sol 1643: First half of long-baseline stereo
20 March 2017MSL drove about 28 meters toward the south on Sol 1642 and again is in an area with Murray Formation bedrock blocks surrounded by dark sand. I helped plan ChemCam observations today, and we settled on a target called "Vinalhaven" at the left side of the layered bedrock exposure seen at… Read More
Name Approved for Feature on Mars: Tarq
17 March 2017The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name Tarq for a crater on Mars. For more information, see the map of MC-29 in the Gazetteer for Planetary Nomenclature.
Sol 1639: Onward to Ogunquit Beach
16 March 2017Planning was challenging this morning because of some network issues at JPL, but the team figured out how to work around the problem and still managed to put together a good plan! We’ve been at Stop 3 of the dune campaign (now known as “Southern Cove”) for a couple of sols, so in… Read More
Sol 1638: Busy Day for MAHLI
15 March 2017Today we are continuing our investigation of Stop #3 of the Bagnold Dune campaign. We start off with some MAHLI images of the APXS targets “Ripogenus” and “Spragueville” from yesterday. For these images, the MAHLI dust cover will stay closed. Then ChemCam will analyze the… Read More
Names, Theme, and Boundary Change Approved for Mercury
15 March 2017The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved an expanded boundary for Borealis Planitia, and the following new names for use on Mercury: Turms Planitia, Otaared Planitia, Apārangi Planitia, Sihtu Planitia, Papsukkal Planitia, Catuilla Planum, Stilbon Planitia, Mearcair… Read More
Sol 1637: Stop 3
14 March 2017Yesterday’s short drive was successful, so we started today with the rover parked at stop #3 of the dune campaign and the rover’s arm up in the “ready out” position. The Sol 1637 plan starts out with a couple of Mastcam atmospheric observations, followed by ChemCam analysis… Read More
Sol 1636: Another Early Morning
13 March 2017Thankfully I wasn’t actually on duty today, because with daylight savings time Arizona is now on West-coast time, and planning started at 6:30am! In any case, the weekend plan was successful, and put us close to the third stop of the current campaign to study the Bagnold Dunes. The Sol 1636… Read More
Sols 1634-1635: Back to nominal MAHLI planning
10 March 2017MSL drove about 29 meters toward the south on Sol 1632, and is in a good position for weekend activities. The MAHLI images taken on Sol 1632 look good, and the dust cover is working properly, so MAHLI is ready to return to nominal operations! The tactical planning team therefore… Read More
Names Approved for Seven Labyrinthi on Titan
9 March 2017The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved names for seven features on Titan: Naraj Labyrinthus, Palma Labyrinthus, Muritan Labyrinthus, Gansireed Labyrinthus, Gammu Labyrinthus, Lampadas Labyrinthus, and Lernaeus Labyrinthus. For more information, see the Titan global and… Read More
Sols 1632-1633: Contact science on "Spring Point"
8 March 2017The MSL rover drove a little over 40 meters on Sol 1630, to a place with bedrock blocks surrounded by dark sand. There's a bright block with parallel linear features in the arm workspace, so the tactical team decided to plan contact science on those features. This made for an… Read More
