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Sol 557 – 559 Update On Curiosity From USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Discipline


I have been traveling this week to a meeting of the HiRISE (the big camera that has been taking images of rovers from orbit, science team, so am catching up with what MSL has been up to. Drive progress has been good, requiring some discipline on the part of the MSL science team to resist diverting the rover toward interesting outcrops . In addition, the SAM instrument has been doing overnight combustion experiments that require lots of power. The last one of these is planned early in the morning of Sol 558, so there are no daytime activities planned for Sol 557. Later on Sol 558, Mastcam and ChemCam observations of a target dubbed "Mount Amy" are planned, followed by MAHLI and APXS observations of a soil target named "Johnny Cake." The rover will then drive about 60 meters on Sol 559 and take the standard post-drive images to prepare for possible contact science on Sol 560.

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