As we enter this weekend thinking about football, raking leaves, and if you're like me, sleeping a bit more, Curiosity will be gearing up for three sols of hard work!
As we enter this weekend thinking about football, raking leaves, and if you’re like me, sleeping a bit more, Curiosity will be gearing up for three sols of hard work! The science team will continue to characterize the drilled “Highfield” workspace by using ChemCam LIBS to examine the chemistry of the drill hole, seen in the above RMI image. This observation will supplement the mineralogical data to be obtained from CheMin soon!
After the drill hole measurements, ChemCam will remain occupied with LIBS planned on targets “Rosebrae” (grey bedrock) and “Cullen” (an interesting combination of bedrock and mottled veins). The weekend science plan also includes a series of Mastcam change detection images to characterize wind-driven grain movement on sand targets “Sand Loch” and “Windyedge.”
In addition to the geological observations, the environmental science theme group has included a ChemCam passive sky activity, a Mastcam sky survey, a Navcam dust devil survey, Navcam cloud movies, and Mastcam full tau measurements in the weekend plan.
It’s a busy weekend for Curiosity and the science planners. The team is certainly taking advantage of the interesting workspace to squeeze as much science out of it as possible!
Written by Samantha Gwizd, Planetary Geologist at University of Tennessee
