Sol 1425: Trying again to deliver drill sample to CheMin

The second attempt to drill into Marimba went well, but the new drill sample was not transferred to CHIMRA due to a recurrence of the electrical short in the percussion mechanism.  Therefore, the sample was not delivered to CheMin as planned.  So we tried again on Sol 1425, this time without percussion (using only more gentle vibration).  This made for a rather busy day for me as SOWG Chair, but once the engineering team decided that it was safe to proceed, planning went very smoothly.  We were able to add some remote science observations before the sample transfer and dropoff to CheMin:  Mastcam will take images of the drill tailings through all filters, ChemCam will acquire passive spectra of the new drill tailings and the sieved Oudam sample pile, and a LIBS observation of the drill hole wall.  CheMin will analyze the Marimba drill sample overnight, then Mastcam will measure the dust in the atmosphere early on the morning of Sol 1426. 

by Ken Herkenhoff

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.