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Sols 1593-1595: Dead River, Misery, and Boil Mountain?

Looks like the team had some fun using the less desirable names for rock targets in today's plan! These are all named after rock formations and geologic features from Bar Harbor, Maine. MSL drove another 8 meters on Sol 1591, and we'll continue to drive in the weekend plan. The three-sol plan starts with a few data management activities for Mastcam and MAHLI, and a recovery sequence to restart ChemCam after it has been marked sick. Then we'll take some Mastcam mosaics of "Dead River" and "Boil Mountain" to investigate laminations within the Murray formation and provide some context imaging of the "Misery" outcrop. Then we'll use MAHLI and APXS to study "Misery" and "Dead River," with an overnight APXS integration on "Misery." On the second sol Curiosity will wake up early for some environmental monitoring observations, including some Navcam movies and Mastcam imaging to assess atmospheric opacity. We'll also take another Mastcam mosaic of "Ireson Hill" to document the stratigraphy with long baseline stereo imaging. The third sol includes additional environmental monitoring, a drive, post-drive imaging for targeting, and preparing for more contact science. Curiosity will also perform a SAM evolved gas experiment to use the residual derivatization vapor in the sample manipulation system. I'll be on duty next week so I'm getting caught up on Curiosity's activities. Let's hope we can leave the "Misery" behind us next week!

By Lauren Edgar

--Lauren is a Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the MSL science team.

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 Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center