Sol 888: Sample dump pile

3 February 2015

The Sol 887 data received this morning show that a sample portion was successfully delivered to SAM, and the un-sieved part of the sample was dumped onto the ground as planned (the pile is just above center in this image).  Sol 888 activities are limited by the need to recharge the… Read More

Sol 887: Sample Analysis

2 February 2015

I'm SOWG Chair today, so I called in to enough of the operations planning teleconferences on Saturday to ensure that I was familiar with the goals for Sol 887.  Most people don't like working on weekends, but I definitely felt that it was worthwhile to do as much as possible while MSL is… Read More

Sol 884: Sample Transfer to CheMin

30 January 2015

After successfully drilling the target “Mojave2” on Sol 882, the next step is to deliver the sample to CheMin for analysis.   We acquired some great Mastcam and MAHLI images of the drill hole and mini drill hole, and we’re looking forward to learning more about… Read More

Sol 883: A Closer Look at the Latest Drill Hole on Mars

29 January 2015

On Sol 882 Curiosity completed another full drill hole on Mars.  The target was “Mojave2” and it proved to be much more stable than “Mojave” (our previous attempt at doing a mini-drill at Mojave resulted in breaking the rock apart).  This time everything went… Read More

Sol 882: Full drill of Mojave2

28 January 2015

The mini-drill activities planned for Sol 881 went well, so we are "go" to drill and acquire a new sample on Sol 882!  I helped plan the Sol 881 MAHLI images, so was particularly happy to see them this morning.  One of them was taken of the intended full-drill target--it… Read More

Sol 881: Mini-drilling, Take 2

27 January 2015

Well, we’re certainly hitting the ground running after our flight software upgrade! Today we received some very nice MAHLI images of the target “Mojave2“ that the rover brushed on sol 880. We also got the results of our “preloading” test, where the drill is pushed… Read More

Sol 880: Resuming science planning

26 January 2015

In spite of missing a command uplink due to a temporary outage at one of the Deep Space Network sites early last week, the flight software transition went well and the MSL operations team is back to planning science activities!  Lots of good observations were proposed, so many that some… Read More

Sol 876: Exciting New Software

22 January 2015

The flight software transition is going well, and Curiosity is doing a test run of the new version.  Both the prime and backup rover computers are on track to commit to the upgrade by this weekend.  However, this means that it’s a pretty quiet week in terms of science… Read More

New Names Approved for 28 Features on Titan

21 January 2015

The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved names for twenty-eight features on Titan: nine insulae, four freta, and fifteen sinūs. For more information, see the Titan North Pole Map and the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

Sols 873-879: Software Transition

20 January 2015

by Ken Herkenhoff There won't be any MSL science planned this week because the rover's software is being upgraded.  I was scheduled as SOWG Chair today and tomorrow in case the software transition had to be aborted, but so far it is going well so the science operations personnel have… Read More