Curiosity continues to investigate the Pahrump Hills.
Curiosity continues to investigate the Pahrump Hills. This is the second time that we are driving up the exposed section, and on this pass we’ve selected several key outcrops to study in more detail. The full path of our “walkabout” at the Pahrump Hills can be seen here . Over the weekend Curiosity used her Dust Removal Tool to expose fresh surfaces at several spots at Pink Cliffs, and today we’re planning to image those locations using all of the Mastcam camera filters. Then Curiosity will drive from Pink Cliffs to Book Cliffs. After the drive we’ll acquire Mastcam and Navcam images to prepare for contact science tomorrow . One of the challenges in today’s plan is that our expected downlink data volume is fairly low, meaning that we might not get all of the images down in time for planning tomorrow . But if all goes well and the necessary images are received, then we’re looking forward to getting detailed information about the fine-scale textures and chemistry at Book Cliffs tomorrow . I’m on duty as the Geology and Mineralogy Science Theme Lead this week, so my fingers are crossed for some good data!
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
