Sol 1569: Back to daily planning
3 January 2017The MSL operations team is back at work after the holiday break, planning Sol 1569. The activities planned for the holidays executed well, so we are proceeding with the investigation of the ridge/fracture patterns at Old Soaker. First, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe the ridges… Read More
Sols 1566-1568: Preparing for the holidays
21 December 2016Today was our last tactical planning day before the team takes a break over the holidays. But that doesn’t mean that Curiosity will be resting! A group of science team members and operations staff assembled an 8-sol plan that will execute over December 22-30, focused on… Read More
Sols 1555-1557: Lots of Targets!
19 December 2016Our short drive over the weekend went well, and we are now at a new location with plenty of science targets to choose from. It’s been quite a while since we had a plan with this many new target names! The Sol 1555 plan starts off with a remote sensing science block. Navcam and Mastcam both… Read More
Sols 1552-1554: Diagnostics, science, and a drive
16 December 2016The engineering team is still hard at work diagnosing our drill issues, but in the meantime we are still getting good science done. The Sol 1552 plan starts off with ChemCam observations of the targets “Hall Quarry” and “Long Porcupine”. Mastcam will document those targets… Read More
Sols 1550-1551: More drill testing
14 December 2016Use of the arm and driving remain off limits while the drill continues to be diagnosed. The 2-sol plan starts with ChemCam and Right Mastcam observations of bright vein targets dubbed "Bear Brook" and "Canon Brook." MARDI will take images during both morning and evening… Read More
Sols 1548-1549: Still at Precipice
12 December 2016Unfortunately, one of the drill diagnostics early in the plan indicated a problem, which prevented most of the other activities for the weekend (including the arm motion and drive) from happening. So that means that for the Sol 1548-1549 plan the rover is still sitting at Precipice. In addition to… Read More
Sols 1545-1547: Moving again!
9 December 2016This morning we received downlink that indicated operation of the drill feed using standard commands. This is great news, and the anomaly response team has cleared the rover for use of the arm and driving (but not yet drilling). In today’s plan, we’ll wrap up work at the… Read More
Sol 1544: Diagnostics and Remote Sensing
8 December 2016The plan for Sol 1544 includes remote sensing and additional diagnostics to resolve the drill feed fault. The plan starts with a Mastcam tau and crater rim extinction observation to monitor dust in the atmosphere. Then we’ll acquire ChemCam observations of “Aunt Betty… Read More
Sol 1543: Motor controller fault
7 December 2016The Sol 1542 drill diagnostics did not complete as intended, and as a consequence, neither did some of the later science activities. Therefore, those tests and activities from Sol 1542 will be planned again on Sol 1543. But first, ChemCam will shoot its laser at a target near… Read More
Name Changed on Ceres
7 December 2016The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name Yamor Mons to replace the name Ysolo Mons on Ceres. For more information, see the map of Ceres in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
