Unfortunately the Sol 1461 drilling activities did notcomplete as expected, so the Sol 1462 plan was focused on trying to understandthe problem while also doing some remote sensing.
Unfortunately the Sol 1461 drilling activities did not
complete as expected, so the Sol 1462 plan was focused on trying to understand
the problem while also doing some remote sensing. The plan starts off with
Mastcam multispectral observations of the target "Ekunha" on the nearby butte.
ChemCam will analyze the targets "Cuasa" and "Cuimba", and then Mastcam will
document those targets and take an 8x3 mosaic of the butte, along with a change
detection observation at "Goantagab".
In the afternoon, Mastcam has a mosaic of the target "Karasburg"
to help with planning contact science, and then in the morning of Sol 1463
Mastcam has another mosaic of the nearby butte, under different lighting, and
Navcam has at atmospheric measurement. Throughout the whole plan, there are
also a number of joint Navcam and Mastcam photometry observations of the same
location at different times of day to help understand how sunlight scatters off
the surface. 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
