We had a successful drive yesterday, and Curiosity is nowparked at our next drill site, called "Quela", right at the base of one of theMurray Buttes.
We had a successful drive yesterday, and Curiosity is now
parked at our next drill site, called "Quela", right at the base of one of the
Murray Buttes. The Sol 1456 plan starts with a Mastcam atmospheric observation,
followed by ChemCam and Mastcam of "Quela" and a Mastcam mosaic of the
workspace. After that, samples of "Marimba" will be dropped off in SAM for
analysis.
On Sol 1457 Mastcam has another tau, and we will dump out
the remaining Marimba sample and take some pictures of it. After that Curiosity
will brush the dust off of Quela, with MAHLI images before and after, and APXS
will do an overnight analysis.
In the morning on Sol 1458, Navcam, Mastcam, and ChemCam
have a series of atmospheric observations. These will be followed by Mastcam
multispectral observations of the Marimba dump pile, and another ChemCam
passive sky and Mastcam tau. ChemCam will also analyze a block of Stimson material
called "Uutapi". Mastcam will document Uutapi and take a mosaic of some other
blocks of rock that have fallen off the butte, collectively called "Cuimba". 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
