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Sols 4275-4276: A Familiar View

A grayscale photograph of the Martian surface shows rough, rocky terrain in the foreground and rolling hills and smooth dunes in the background.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on sol 4272 — Martian day 4,272 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission – on Aug. 12, 2024 at 12:06:27 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024

The star of today’s plan is SAM’s GCMS, which continues our analysis of the “Kings Canyon” drill sample. As Natalie mentioned, this is a relatively energy-hungry activity, but luckily our last plan left us in a good position to not only complete the GCMS experiment but also fit in some other science around it. Having spent a good deal of time in this location for our drill campaign, we’re getting really familiar with this area in a way we don’t get the opportunity to when we’re driving more often. This means lots of geology targets both near and far — a collection to which we’re adding in today’s plan. Nearby, we have two targets for ChemCam’s laser spectrometer, “Meysan Lake” and “Washburn Lake.” Further afield, ChemCam has long-distance mosaics of “Milestone Peak” and our constant companion for many sols, the Kukenan Butte. Mastcam will also be getting a mosaic of the Wilkerson Butte.

While the atmosphere is always with us, staying in one spot can also grant us good opportunities for keeping an eye on the current environment. We currently have a great view of a nearby sand patch, which you can see in the image above, and we’ve been taking full advantage with lots of dust devil movies, including one in today’s plan. We can also look out for wind-driven movement closer to home, which we’re doing with a Mastcam observation of the drill hole tailings and a Navcam observation of the dust that’s accumulated on the rover deck.

It’s not just near-surface dust we want to keep an eye on, though. The amount of dust suspended in the atmosphere varies throughout the year, and we’re continuing to keep track of that with regular tau observations. The optical depth, which is usually denoted by the Greek letter tau (hence our observation’s name), is a measure of how opaque or transparent the atmosphere is. At this time of year, in the midst of the dusty season, there tends to be more dust suspended in the atmosphere, meaning we cannot see quite as far, and we say the optical depth, or tau, is higher.  

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University

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Last Updated
Aug 19, 2024
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NASA Science Editorial Team

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A grayscale landscape photo from Mars, showing a broad, medium gray, rock-strewn plain in the foreground extending far into the distance, surrounded by several hills. The closest hill, in the lower right corner, rises up toward the side of the frame, and is darker than the floor below. A little farther out, on the left, a gentle slope rises from the low middle of the frame to middle of the left side; it’s about the same color as the valley floor, except for a band at its farthest edge, which darkens abruptly as if covered in shadow. The terrain appears softer than the ground below, more sandy than rocky. Beyond that along the same rising plane is a much lighter area, with scattered tiny peaks that are darker – looking like the top of a baked meringue pie. The channel floor runs between these hills, then appears to curve toward the right, behind the first hill and in front of the second. Finally, one other rounded peak appears above the horizon, behind these other two hills in the lower right of the frame, all of this below a light-gray sky filling more than half of the frame above.
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