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Once again the drive went well and we planned another drive on Sol 41. The
terrain is relatively featureless in this area, so we are focusing imaging
plans on distant targets. We are on a relatively high plateau so the views
toward the rim of Gale crater are better than they were from the landing
site. The path to Glenelg is mostly (slightly) downhill from here, so the
distant views are as good as they will get for a while.
The amount of time we have to plan each sol's activities is a bit shorter
than usual these days due to unusually long delays in relaying the data
from MSL through the Mars orbiters. So we are not able to plan as many
scientific observations, but are still able to drive each sol. ChemCam is
working well and returning good data again.
Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center