Sol 102 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Driving Again

17 November 2012

I'm back on tactical operations tomorrow as SOWG Chair, so I'm following along with Sol 102 planning to get up to speed after being away at the ChemCam team meeting. The rover drove to a nearby rock target yesterday, and the plan is to drive 35 meters on Sol 102 after placing the APXS on the nearby rock target for a short chemistry measurement. The rover will stop early in the drive to look back at the scuff in the ripple using Mastcam. This is a fairly complex plan, and I'm happy to see that the ops team is taking it on. We had some trouble with one of the web video sharing tools today, so had to use a backup system that is slower (long delay relative to phone/real time). Otherwise, remote operations are going well and MSL is healthy. It helps that I can recognize most of the voices on the phone!