Sols 3871-3872: Back on Track

Earth planning date: Monday, June 26, 2023

We started planning today with the great news that our drive was successful! This put us in a perfect position for our split touch-and-go plan – lots to see, and no need to worry that we might be on unsteady footing, like we were on Friday.

Our two nearby targets are bedrock blocks: the nodular bedrock ‘Lousoi,’ which we’ll be investigating up close (the ‘touching’ in the touch-and-go) with APXS and MAHLI; and the ChemCam LIBS target, ‘Valvousi,’ which is on the face of another block. Adjacent to Valvousi is a small trench, which Mastcam will take a look at. Masctcam and ChemCam will also be looking further afield. Mastcam is taking a mosaic of the ridge to our south, and ChemCam is looking behind us towards the Gediz Vallis Ridge. After we finish up, we’re taking a late afternoon drive southeast along our alternate route.

After this busy sol, Curiosity will spend most of the second sol of the plan napping, but will wake up for a few observations around noon. ChemCam will use AEGIS to autonomously look for a post-drive target. ENV also has some of our normal atmospheric monitoring activities, including a suprahorizon cloud movie, a tau observation to monitor dust, and a 360 degree dust devil survey.

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University