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Sol 1535: Cross-contamination experiment

The
current drill campaign continues to go smoothly, and the Sol 1535 plan is
dominated by an experiment to see if any Sebina sample material is left inside the
drill bit chamber from the previous drilling. This is motivated by the
fact that we only used vibration to transfer that sample from the drill bit
assembly into CHIMRA, rather than also using percussion. So it’s a
"cross-contamination experiment" designed to see if the vibration didn’t do a
complete job back when we first drilled Sebina. Lots of images of
the sieve and other parts of CHIMRA will be taken to verify that the system is
clean. These activities will take a fair amount of time and power, but we
were able to squeeze a few remote science observations into the plan:
ChemCam will shoot its laser at bedrock targets named "West Tremont"
and "Eastern Head," and the Right Mastcam will image the same
targets. The Left Mastcam will also examine fracture patterns
at "Sawyer's Cove." Finally, Navcam will search for clouds
north of the rover. If all goes well, drilling will be planned tomorrow!

by
Ken Herkenhoff

Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center