Sol 83 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Shifting Gears

The MAHLI images of the rocks right in front of the rover came out nicely and are being processed to enable APXS placement on one or both of them. The Sol 83 plan focused on SAM and CheMin activities, in preparation for the next scooping and delivery of soil to those instruments. So there wasn't much room in the plan for anything else, and no new MAHLI images were planned. I had an easy day, but have to start my next MAHLI PUL shift at 4:30 tomorrow morning. It will be my last PUL shift on Mars time, and the last difficult start time for me. While I'm looking forward to returning to a normal schedule, I'll miss the excitement of working with the whole team at JPL. After Sol 90 the plan is for most of the science team to return to their home institutions and support rover operations remotely. More on that later...