We are beginning to turn toward the east and southeast as we approach Vera Rubin Ridge with the Curiosity rover. After a busy and successful plan over the weekend, we weighed our priorities between using APXS to study the bedrock we’re driving over or drive farther along our path.
We are beginning to turn toward the east and southeast as we approach Vera Rubin Ridge with the Curiosity rover. After a busy and successful plan over the weekend, we weighed our priorities between using APXS to study the bedrock we’re driving over or drive farther along our path.
Today I was the Science Operations Working Group Chair as we planned sol 1718 and since we had only gained ~3m of elevation in our last drive, we decided to forgo contact science with APXS in favor of extending our drive distance. The GEO science theme group still found some interesting bedrock-“East Point” (the dark section in the middle of the rock at the upper right corner of the image), “East Pond”, and “Eastern Point Harbor” – to target with ChemCam and Mastcam before we begin our drive. After a ~26 meter drive, we planned post-drive imaging to prepare for the next sol’s activities and conducted a ChemCam AEGIS activity. The ENV science theme group had a quiet plan with routine DAN and REMS observations.
Written by Scott Guzewich, Atmospheric Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
