The sol 976 drive was successful and we are close to "JockoChute" (our informal name for the saddle point west of Jocko Butte).
The sol 976 drive was successful and we are close to "Jocko
Chute" (our informal name for the saddle point west of Jocko Butte). In the sol
978 plan, we have a ChemCam LIBS observation of a patch of exposed bedrock
called "Big Salmon", followed by lots of Mastcam images. There is a 14x3 mosaic
of some hills in the direction of our drive, some single frame high-resolution
images of the targets "Silvertip", "White_Coyote", and part of the wall of
"Logan Pass". There is also a stereo Mastcam image of an outcrop called "White
Horse" and a 4x2 mosaic of Jocko Butte.
Once all that is done, we will drive toward "Logan Pass" and
do our standard post-drive imaging so we can see our new surroundings. On sol
979 ChemCam has a few calibration observations of targets on the rover, and
then Mastcam has an overnight observation of Phobos as it is eclipsed by Mars.
The idea of this observation is to take pictures of Phobos when it is
illuminated by the sun, and then when it is illuminated just by light passing
through Mars’ atmosphere, and compare them to figure out how much dust is in
the atmosphere. By Ryan Anderson -Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL. 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 Ryan Anderson, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
