The weekend plan went well and today we begin the secondhalf of the campaign to study the "Bagnold Dunes".
The weekend plan went well and today we begin the second half of the campaign to study the "Bagnold Dunes". The Sol 1602 plan starts off with two Mastcam mosaics of the dunes which will be repeated several times later in the sol to watch for changes. Navcam also has a dust devil monitoring observation in the morning science block. Around midday, Mastcam will do a couple of measurements to determine the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and ChemCam will do an active LIBS observation of the soil target "Mapleton" as the final step in the diagnostics that will allow it to return to active duty! In addition to change detection, Mastcam has a stereo image of some bedforms at "Flume Ridge," a 9x2 mosaic of the interesting nearby dune field, and a 3x2 observation in support of the campaign to watch for dust devils. Later in the sol, MAHLI will have a field day, observing the targets "Scarboro", "McKenny", "Matagamon", "Flume Ridge", "The Forks", and "West Branch". The rest of the sol involves repeating the Mastcam change detection observations, going all the way until 7:30 in the evening.
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
