Sol 13 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: All-Star Crew

I served as SOWG Chair again today, planning Sol 13 activities for MSL. The tactical planning team is getting better at getting everything done in time to send commands to the rover, so we were able to fit more new scientific observations into the plan today. Fortunately, the science team was led by an "all star" crew today, including Steve Squyres as Geology Science Theme Lead. Steve is the Principal Investigator of the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rovers that landed on Mars in January 2004--first Spirit, then Opportunity. I have been working for Steve as science lead for the Microscopic imager, the close-up camera on the MER instrument arms. So we were joking today about the role reversal--as SOWG Chair I lead the science team today. The Opportunity mission continues to be operated from the floor above the one where the MSL team has been working, so I reminded him that upstairs he's still my boss. It was great to have such expert support today, and we put together a good plan. Mid-way through the planning process we learned that the SAM instrument checkout planned for Sol 14 would have to be spread over two Sols because the successful completion of the first part of the checkout would have to be confirmed by analyzing the results on Earth before the second part could start. To avoid having to spend an extra sol to get this done, we scrambled to move the first part of the checkout into the Sol 13 plan. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that it was not easy. We handed the new plan off to the second shift, and hope that they will be able to implement it.

So now I'm done with the set of four shifts as SOWG Chair, as scheduled. It was exhilarating and I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve the project in this role, but I'm also glad to have a break for a few days. I'm hoping to get more sleep tonight and to catch up on all the other work that has been piling up over the past week. I'm also looking forward to having more time to analyze the data we have received from MSL and attend the Science Discussion meeting, which always conflict with tactical planning meetings.

Ken

Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center