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Sols 3207-3209: Martian Superstition

MAHLI image of "Kilmaluag" acquired on sol 3208.
MAHLI image of "Kilmaluag" acquired on sol 3208.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

On Earth, there are superstitions that Friday the 13th is a day of bad luck. On Mars today, the Curiosity rover team got word that the rover’s drive had come up shorter than expected and that minor delays with software tools were complicating plans. So, to those who believe in the lore surrounding Friday the 13th, this may have seemed like an inevitable string of bad luck beyond our control. But to the rover team, this just looked like a regular day on Mars. Remote exploration of another planet is hard, and the team is often confronted with unforeseen challenges that require us to think on our feet and come up with innovative solutions. Today, the engineers and scientists on shift adapted quickly and succeeded in planning a full weekend of rover activities.

One the first sol of the plan the team scheduled a dedicated ChemCam Passive Sky observation that will be used to characterize local environmental conditions. The later sols in the plan will also include atmospheric activities including background DAN and REMS measurements and Mastcam images used to characterize dust opacity. The NCAM will also be used to acquire cloud movies, dust devil observations, a “line-of-sight” image, and a zenith movie.

The second and third sol of the plan will include a large set of remote science and contact science activities. A prominent vein feature called “White Caterthuns” will be targeted with ChemCam LIBS and documented with a Mastcam mosaic. A second Mastcam mosaic will be acquired on bedrock target “Balliol.” ChemCam will also target another piece of bedrock called “Brown Caterthuns.” Two small “blue” float rocks called “Inaccessible Pinnacle” and "Kilmaluag" (shown in the image above) will be investigated further with MAHLI, APXS, and Mastcam multispectral data. Lastly, the rover will acquire some additional imaging of our current location through a long distance RMI mosaic of a distant rock outcrop and a Mastcam 360° mosaic.

Barring any additional bouts of bad luck, the rover is geared up for a productive weekend on Mars. Fingers-crossed things will go smoothly but, as always, the team is prepared to handle any obstacles that await us.

Written by Mariah Baker, Planetary Geologist at Center for Earth & Planetary Studies, Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum