Sol 1461: Time to drill
14 September 2016It’s always an exciting day on Mars when you prepare to drill another sample – an engineering feat that we’ve become so accustomed to that I sometimes forget how impressive this really is! Today’s plan just looks like a “typical” drill sol. First… Read More
Sol 1460: Preparing to drill
13 September 2016Yesterday was sol 2 of the drill campaign at “Quela” and we did a lot of great remote sensing, contact science and wheel imaging (see the above RMI image showing fine lamination in some pebbles, and the MAHLI image of the wheels to monitor their health). Today’s plan… Read More
Sol 1459: Characterizing the Marimba dump pile
12 September 2016Over the weekend, Curiosity completed analyses of the “Marimba” drill sample (our previous drill target), and dumped the post-sieve sample. Today’s plan is focused on MAHLI and APXS of the dump pile, and MAHLI imaging of the CheMin inlet to prepare for drill activities at our… Read More
Sols 1456-1458: Settling in at Quela
9 September 2016We had a successful drive yesterday, and Curiosity is now parked at our next drill site, called “Quela”, right at the base of one of the Murray Buttes. The Sol 1456 plan starts with a Mastcam atmospheric observation, followed by ChemCam and Mastcam of “Quela” and a Mastcam… Read More
Sol 1455: Driving to Quela
8 September 2016After another successful drive of ~40 m, Curiosity is aiming to approach the south side of a butte for our next potential drill site. The area is known as “Quela,” and is seen in the above Navcam image as the bright outcrop at the base of the butte. Today’s plan includes a… Read More
Sol 1454: Approaching the next drill site
6 September 2016The 4-sol plan over the holiday weekend went well, and Curiosity drove ~40 m to the south. We’re currently just to the east of a butte that we’re planning to approach as our next potential drill site. Today’s 1-sol plan is a busy one. We’ll start with… Read More
Sols 1450-1453: Communication challenges
2 September 2016Curiosity had a nice ~78 m drive on Sol 1448, which set us up for a lot of great science over the long (4-sol) weekend. Unfortunately a problem with the Deep Space Network caused an entire Odyssey pass to be lost, so we didn’t receive the workspace images that we would have needed to do… Read More
Sols 1448-1449: No touch, just go
31 August 2016MSL roved 53 meters on Sol 1446, and ended up in an area with nice exposures of bedrock. We were interested in taking MAHLI close-up images of the bedrock but were concerned that they would not be very useful if the surface as dusty as it typically is. We therefore considered using… Read More
Sols 1446-1447: Back on the road
29 August 2016The MSL activities planned for last weekend went well, and the rover's batteries have enough energy to proceed with another drive on Sol 1446. We started the day looking at the beautiful new Mastcam images of the nearby buttes, then got down to planning the details of the 2-sol… Read More
Sols 1443-1445: A SAM-filled weekend plan
26 August 2016The drive planned on Wednesday did not execute due to an unanticipated flight software interaction. However, the problem is now understood and we will attempt the drive again next week. Today’s three-sol weekend plan is focused on SAM activities and contact science. On… Read More
