The team applauded the first results from CheMin, which show that the instrument is working well, measuring abundances of minerals in the sandy first sample delivered to it.
The team applauded the first results from CheMin, which show that the instrument is working well, measuring abundances of minerals in the sandy first sample delivered to it. The CheMin scientists thanked the Surface Sampling Subsystem team for doing such a good job delivering the first sample, and there was another round of applause.
The plan for Sol 73 is dominated by more arm activities, processing another scooped sample through CHIMRA to further clean out any terrestrial contamination before a sample is delivered to SAM, which is very sensitive to organic material. We don't want to put any organic material from Earth into SAM! There wasn't much room in the plan for additional science observations, but we were able to squeeze in a MAHLI image of the observation tray to see whether the soil placed on it during Sol 70 slid or blew off the tray.
Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
