Sol 1536: Drilling "Precipice"
30 November 2016The cross-contamination experiment and cleaning of CHIMRA went well, so we are ready to drill into the Precipice target! Past drilling activities have made use of both rotation and percussion, but percussion has caused intermittent short circuits occasionally since Sol 911, so on Sol… Read More
Sol 1535: Cross-contamination experiment
29 November 2016The current drill campaign continues to go smoothly, and the Sol 1535 plan is dominated by an experiment to see if any Sebina sample material is left inside the drill bit chamber from the previous drilling. This is motivated by the fact that we only used vibration to transfer that sample… Read More
Sol 1534: Preparing to drill
28 November 2016Curiosity had a productive Thanksgiving weekend and now we are getting ready to drill at “Precipice.” Sol 1534 begins with MAHLI imaging of the post-sieve dump pile from the previous drill sample (“Sebina”). Then we have a short science block to acquire a ChemCam… Read More
Sols 1531-1533: Thanksgiving at Precipice
23 November 2016Today’s plan covers sols 1531-1533, which will take us through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We are in place at our next drill location “Precipice” so there will be no driving in the plan, just a lot of science and preparation for drilling! Sol 1531 will start off with… Read More
Sols 1528-1530: Fifteen Kilometers!
22 November 2016Our weekend plan went as expected, including a ~16 meter drive which brings us to our next drill target: “Precipice”. That drive also brings our total drive distance from Bradbury Landing to just over 15 km! We have a three sol plan today as we head into the long holiday weekend… Read More
Sols 1525-1527: Contact science at Sutton Island and approaching the next drill site
18 November 2016The MAHLI images from Sol 1523 are down, and we acquired some beautiful images of this new outcrop, as seen in the above image of the target "Seawall." Today’s plan is focused on finishing the investigation at “Sutton Island,” and then driving towards the next drill target,… Read More
Sols 1523-1524: Investigating Sutton Island
16 November 2016On Sol 1521 Curiosity drove 11 m to the east, which set us up to investigate a darker-toned outcrop known as “Sutton Island,” seen in the middle of the above Mastcam image. Today’s plan is focused on contact science to study the grain size, stratification, and chemistry of… Read More
Sols 1521-1522: Making progress toward the next drill site
14 November 2016Curiosity continues to drive across bumpy terrain of the Murray formation. Over the weekend, Curiosity drove ~36 m, making good progress toward our next drill site. Today’s two-sol plan starts with several ChemCam observations to assess the chemistry of the local bedrock and… Read More
Sols 1516-1520: Playing in the Sand
14 November 2016We’re continuing to make steady progress, with successful drives interspersed with plenty of good science. In the Sol 1516 plan, we started off with a Mastcam mosaic of “West Mesa” to study the stratigraphy, followed by a big 5x5 point ChemCam analysis on the nodular target… Read More
Sols 1514-1515: Touch and Go at Southwest Harbor
7 November 2016Our weekend plan was successful, with lots of good observations and a 43 meter drive. Today’s 2-sol plan starts out with a brief contact science block, during which MAHLI will observe the target “Southwest Harbor”. After that, we have a remote sensing block. ChemCam will observe… Read More
