Sol 95 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Preconditioning
11 November 2012There was applause in the MSL SOWG meeting room and on the phone lines as the first SAM results on solid Martian material were announced. The instrument appears to be working well, and the team is busy analyzing the new data. The plan for Sol 95 therefore included another SAM "preconditioning"… Read More
Sol 94 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Driving in Flagstaff
10 November 2012The fifth scoop of Martian soil was successful, and Sol 94 planning was focussed on processing the sample and delivering it to CheMin. The X-ray diffraction instrument will then analyze the sample overnight. There was enough power and time left for a couple Mastcam mosaics in the afternoon. I… Read More
Sol 91 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Dry Run
6 November 2012I made it home to Flagstaff last night despite being detoured by a fire that closed I-15 near Cajon Pass. I verified that the web tools and phone access to the MSL tactical planning meetings worked well, and followed the SOWG meeting planning Sol 91. The tools are similar to those we have been… Read More
Sol 89 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Working from Home
4 November 2012I served as SOWG Chair for my last MSL tactical shift on Mars time. It was bittersweet: I'll miss working with the whole team at JPL, but I'm looking forward to going home. We are learning how to more effectively operate the rover with most of the team being "remote" (working from their home… Read More
Sol 88 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Remote Remote
3 November 2012We squeezed a lot of good science observations into the Sol 88 plan, and I'm happy with it. There were a lot of conflicting requests from the science theme groups, but we got most of them into the plan, including both arm and remote sensing activities. The only instrument that will not be… Read More
Sol 87 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Self Portrait
2 November 2012The MAHLI "self portrait" of the rover that we planned on Sol 84 came out beautifully. Several other updates on the MSL mission are related to the news conference this morning, which included discussion of SAM atmospheric measurements. The SAM data indicate that much of Mars' atmosphere has… Read More
Sol 83 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Shifting Gears
30 October 2012The 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… Read More
Sol 84 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: SAM I Am
31 October 2012We continue to prepare for the first delivery of a sample of Mars to SAM, the big analytical chemistry instrument on MSL. CheMin already analyzed its first soil sample, and SAM is next. The SAM "pre-conditioning" was successful, so the next scoop of soil will be delivered to SAM. As MAHLI PUL… Read More
Sol 82 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: CHIMRA Cleaning
28 October 2012MSL operations have gone well while I was in the Bay Area: the team applauded the successful completion of CHIMRA cleaning today. As a bonus, almost 1 gigabit of data were received on Sol 81! I was MAHLI payload uplink lead for Sol 82 planning, and had to scramble to get up to speed after being… Read More
Sol 75 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Week Off
23 October 2012I'm not at JPL for the rest of the week, but was glad to see that the ChemCam shot at the soil near MSL went as planned on Sol 74. Since then, more observations of the ChemCam calibration targets have been successfully acquired, which is good news because the calibration is long overdue. Also, a… Read More
