Sols 3853-3856: Time To Try a New Route

Earth planning dates: Wednesday, June 7 and Friday, June 9, 2023

This blog covers two planning shifts this week, for a total of four sols of activities. Curiosity has been trying to work her way to the top of a canyon towards an interesting cluster of craters. Unfortunately the current terrain is extremely challenging, and the drives have been stopping short of their intended distance. After multiple attempts to get uphill but making only incremental progress, the team decided today to try a new route. The new route looks a lot less steep, which will hopefully help the rover make progress among the mixture of fines and bedrock blocks. I’m reminded of the many challenges we encounter on Earth while driving off road for fieldwork… but Curiosity doesn’t have the help of traction mats and tow ropes! Despite these driving challenges, Curiosity has been conducting a lot of great science this week.

On Wednesday the team planned two sols, including contact science and remote sensing. During the recent drives the rover wheels have been creating scuffs in the soil (as seen in the above Navcam image), which provide an interesting opportunity to assess the composition of soil newly exposed by the rover wheels. Curiosity collected APXS and MAHLI data on the soil target “Saul,” along with ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the sand slumps. The team also planned a long distance ChemCam RMI mosaic towards Peace Vallis and the distant crater rim, and a number of environmental monitoring observations including cloud and dust devil movies and observations of atmospheric opacity. Wednesday’s plan included another attempt to drive uphill…

We came in to planning on Friday to discover that although Curiosity drove ~5 m, there was not sufficient progress to encourage us to continue on this route. So we collected our final observations in this vicinity and set our sights on a new route to the east. Today’s plan covers two sols because Saturday is a soliday. ChemCam will assess the chemistry of two bedrock blocks in our workspace, and acquire long distance RMIs towards Peace Vallis. Mastcam will acquire multispectral observations on a couple of rocks and veins, as well as stereo imaging of our workspace and a nearby crater. Some additional environmental monitoring observations are sprinkled throughout the plan. Then Curiosity will drive on the second sol, and we’re hoping to come in next week to some easier terrain ahead!

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center