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Sol 82 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: CHIMRA Cleaning


MSL operations have gone well while I was in the Bay Area: the team applauded the successful completion of CHIMRA cleaning today. As a bonus, almost 1 gigabit of data were received on Sol 81! I was MAHLI payload uplink lead for Sol 82 planning, and had to scramble to get up to speed after being away for a few days. A lot of good MAHLI observations were proposed, and most of them made it into the plan: Stereo observations of two rocks near the left front wheel that cannot be well imaged by the Navigation cameras, and a couple images of the latest scoop trench. The stereo MAHLI images will hopefully be useful in determining whether the APXS can measure the chemistry of these rocks.

Mars time is getting closer to Pacific Daylight Time these days--my shift didn't start until 6:30 this morning. We will receive data from MSL even earlier tomorrow morning, so I have to arrive at JPL at 5:45 AM. But we will not be working on Mars time for long--the plan is to transition to "Earth time" by Sol 90.

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