Sols 2395-2396: Powering through

The drop off of "Kilmarie" drill sample to SAM on Sol 2293 appeared to be successful, but we will not get the full results of the SAM analysis until later today. The results are needed to help determine if we will dive even further into the volatile and organic makeup of the Kilmarie sample. There was no sitting around and twiddling actuators, however, even though the amount of power available was limited. Curiosity will gather more details about the Kilmarie sample mineralogy via another CheMin integration, and also pepper a suite of broken up bedrock fragments around the rover - "Deinabo," "Durnhill," and "Dumyat" - with ChemCam shots to compare their chemistry to that of the more-coherent bedrock that Kilmarie is found within. The rover will acquire a long distance RMI mosaic looking uphill toward the part of the Mount Sharp stratigraphy that is observed to have a strong spectral signature of sulfate from orbit. Changes caused by the wind will be monitored by comparing the single MARDI image acquired in this plan to one acquired right after our arrival at Kilmarie on Sol 2381. Changes in the environment will be monitored with a Navcam cloud movie and regular REMS and RAD measurements.

Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework