Unfortunately, the much-anticipated rotary-only drilling experiment did not even start due to a drill fault that is currently being investigated.
Unfortunately,
the much-anticipated rotary-only drilling experiment did not even start
due to a drill fault that is currently being investigated. This type
of drill fault appears to be unrelated to
the previous short circuits during
percussion, but more study is needed. So the tactical planning team
had to scramble to put together a plan while the drill experts work to
recover from this anomaly. Luckily, the fault did not preclude
non-drilling arm activities, so we picked the bright
target " Thomas Bay "
for contact science. We were also able to fit a lot of remote science
observations into the plan: A Navcam cloud movie, a Right Mastcam
mosaic of "Squid Cove," Mastcam measurements of dust in the atmosphere,
and a small Mastcam stereo mosaic of "Baldwin
Corners." At various times of day, Navcam and Mastcam will image the
ground toward and opposite the azimuth of sunset to measure the
photometric (light scattering) properties of the rocks and soils near
the rover. ChemCam and the Right Mastcam will also
observe bedrock target "Compass Harbor" and vein targets "Bartlett
Narrows" and "Birch Point." After drill diagnostics are performed, more
Mastcam dust measurements and images of "Hulls Cove" and "Big Heath"
are planned. It was a busy day for me and the
other MAHLI uplink leads, as we had to modify our command sequences to
take images with MAHLI's dust cover closed and find the best time to
take images in full sunlight. Since the fine-grained Sebina sample was
dumped, we are concerned about material blowing
onto MAHLI's lens and sticking to it. Finally, the APXS will be placed
on Thomas Bay for an overnight integration.
by Ken Herkenhoff
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
