MSL drove almost 30 meters on Sol 1507, into an area with more dark sand than we have been seeing recently.
MSL drove almost 30 meters on Sol 1507, into an area with more dark
sand than we have been seeing recently. Because only a few rocks are
exposed in the arm workspace,
the tactical team decided against contact science in favor of
maximizing the drive distance on Sol 1508. The view ahead is good
enough to allow a drive of up to 50 meters, but will require more time
so we couldn't squeeze in many pre-drive observations. Mastcam will
acquire a full multispectral set of images of "Thunder Hole," an area
about 500 meters away that shows evidence for clays in data acquired
from orbit. Then ChemCam and Mastcam will observe a bedrock target
named "Ingraham Point." After the drive and taking the post-drive imaging we will need to pick targets tomorrow , AEGIS will again be used to autonomously select a target and acquire ChemCam data.
by Ken Herkenhoff
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 Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
