Phew! Today was a busy day on Mars! Ken and I were both onoperations today, picking up where Lauren left off yesterday.
Phew! Today was a busy day on Mars! Ken and I were both on
operations today, picking up where Lauren left off yesterday. Ken was helping
with ChemCam science in the geology and mineralogy (GeoMin) theme group, and I
was the GeoMin Keeper of the Plan (KOP). We started off the day admiring the
beautiful images from the sol 1031 "dog’s-eye view" mosaic of the ledge near
the target "Missoula". Then there was a long discussion about where to do our
contact science, and in particular where to put APXS for an overnight
measurement. In the end, we decided to do a MAHLI mosaic of the target "Clark",
just to the left of the "dog’s eye" mosaic from sol 1031, and then a MAHLI
observation of "Lumpry" which will also be the overnight APXS location.
That is followed by some Mastcam, starting with some carefully-timed
images of Phobos as it crosses in front of the sun. After that, we are planning
"multispectral" Mastcam observations of targets "Coombs", "Cottonwood", and "Lowary".
Multispectral means that we take images of the same target through several
different color filters to get an idea of what the reflectance spectrum of the
rocks looks like. After all that Mastcam we also have a Navcam movie to search
for clouds, and a couple of Navcam images to allow more targeted Mastcam
tomorrow.
But wait, there’s more! We also scheduled another MAHLI
observation of the target "Seeley" which is a rock that was broken by the rover’s
wheels. That is followed by ChemCam observations of "Coombs", "Regis", and "Spotted
Bear" and associated Mastcam documentation images.
That means that once planning for today was done, we were
both also involved in working on tomorrow’s plan, which will cover the long
holiday weekend. We will both be on duty tomorrow in the same roles, polishing
the plan we started today and making sure the rover is busy doing good science
over the weekend. 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
