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MSL drove over 45 meters on Sol 1428, closer to the Murray Buttes .
I helped select ChemCam targets again this morning, and was glad to see
that some of them made it into the weekend plan. The primary
constraint on planning today ended up being power--we tried to fit more
into the plan than the rover's batteries could support! But we were
still able to include a lot of good activities into the plan, starting
with a dust devil search, dust opacity measurements, and Mastcam stereo
mosaics of the Murray Buttes on Sol 1429. ChemCam will acquire LIBS
data on bedrock targets "Matala," "Cazombo," and "Ondjiva" before the
Right Mastcam takes a 7x3 mosaic that includes the ChemCam targets.
Overnight and into the early morning hours of Sol 1430, SAM will perform
the first part of an experiment on the Mojave drill sample that has
been stored in the instrument for several months. The second part of
the SAM experiment is planned for the next night, completing early on
Sol 1431. Finally, a drive is planned for Sol 1431, followed by
acquisition of the data needed to plan another drive on Monday . So, even though we had to remove some activities during planning, the rover will be very busy this weekend!
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