There were more cheers and applause when MAHLI images of the belly of therover were displayed .
There were more cheers and applause when MAHLI images of the belly of the
rover were displayed . The
camera, which can focus at distances from 2 cm to infinity, is working
perfectly! It also took pictures of its calibration target , which
includes a 1909 Lincoln penny . The arm
checkout also went well, leaving the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
(APXS) facing its calibration target for a long integration. Unfortunately, ChemCam suffered a command error on Sol 34 and
was shut down by the rover computer. This also prevented the rest of the
planned remote sensing observations from being acquired that sol, and the
remote sensing mast (RSM) from being used on Sol 35. So the Sol 35 plan
was rather simple, including more APXS integration on its calibration
target followed by retraction of the arm. Even though we couldn’t use the
RSM, we could still plan a test of Mastcam’s video capability, as it
doesn’t matter where the cameras are pointed for this test. We are all
hoping that recovery from the ChemCam error will be rapid, and that we will
be able to use it and the rest of the instruments on the RSM tomorrow.
Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
