Over the weekend, the rover stopped after about 17 meters ofthe planned 65 meter drive.
Over the weekend, the rover stopped after about 17 meters of
the planned 65 meter drive. The rover is fine, the drive just tripped one of the
(very conservative) limits on how the rover’s suspension was expected to
behave, causing Curiosity to stop and check in with Earth. Since there is
nothing jumping out at us as a contact science target where we stopped, in
today’s plan we will try to make up for some of the lost distance from the
weekend plan.
In the Sol 1378 plan, ChemCam has observations of some
bedrock at the target "Tombua" and a rock named "Ai Ais". Mastcam then will
image the two ChemCam targets, as well as the Sol 1376 AEGIS target. Mastcam
will also image some veins at a location called "Helgas". After that, we will
drive and collect some typical post-drive imaging.
On Sol 1379, we won’t have data down from Sol 1378 yet, so
it is an untargeted plan. In the morning, ChemCam, NavCam, and Mastcam have
some atmospheric observations. Then in the afternoon, ChemCam has some
calibration observations, followed by a few more Mastcam atmospheric
observations. 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
