2 min read
Today I was on duty as KOP again, but we got to sleep in: we
started at 7 am instead of 6:30!
Curiosity is in good shape and our drive was successful. In
the Sol 1311 plan, we have ChemCam observations of the targets "Garnet Koppie",
"Amspoort", "Soutrivier", and "Uubvley". Garnet Koppie and Amspoort will allow
us to compare the composition of a bright fracture halo and the nearby bedrock,
Soutrivier is targeting a small white vein, and Uubvley is a fin of material
sticking up near a large fracture. ChemCam also has a long distance RMI
observation of the Peace Vallis channel off to the north. We talked a lot about
possible places to image with Mastcam, but decided that we will have a better
view of everything of interest after another drive or two, so Mastcam just has
documentation images of the ChemCam targets.
After the targeted observations, we have a short drive to
put the rover in a better position to see the terrain in front of it. This will
allow us to drive into the area with large fractures visible from orbit, which
we have started informally calling "Fracture Town" but which will probably get
a more official name soon.
The plan finished with some early morning atmospheric
observations on Sol 1312, including a ChemCam passive sky observation, Mastcam
observation of the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and Navcam movies to watch
for clouds. 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