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Sol 2443: Brushing Beauly and beholding Balnakettle

Sol 2443: Brushing Beauly and beholding Balnakettle

MAHLI observation of Beauly

Curiosity is still parked at a tilt of a little over 23˚ to examine the outcrop on top of "Teal Ridge." While the science team begins to pore over all the data that came down yesterday and today, we also simultaneously developed a busy plan for today that will continue our investigation of this spectacular sedimentary outcrop.

The main activities in the sol 2443 plan will be a DRT, MAHLI, and APXS observation of a finely layered target named "Beauly," which was imaged with MAHLI on sol 2441. We will also take a MAHLI and APXS observation of a second target named "Balnakettle." Outside of the contact science observations, Curiosity will take two change detection images of a target called "Sandyhills," and a 10x2 stereo Mastcam mosaic towards an area Curiosity will be driving through soon that the team has informally dubbed the "Visionarium" in anticipation of the bedrock exposures that will be visible. We also have a Mastcam 11x6 stereo mosaic to completely document the area around Beauly, and we will collect a 1x10 ChemCam LIBS observation of target named "Bower." Curiosity will even squeeze in some environmental science observations with Navcam suprahorizon and zenith movies.

Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory