Instrument Check-Out

Curiosity remains busy on Mars by checking out her instruments and getting ready for her first test drive.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi I’m Bobak Ferdowski, flight director with the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity and this is your Curiosity Rover Update.

This week, we did a color panorama surrounding the rover with both the Mastcam, in addition to the Navcams, and we also upgraded the software on board on both computers of the rover this week.

This new software is like having new applications with new functionalities on the rover to allow us to do mobility, deploy the arm and get to the science we’re looking forward to on the mission.

We also did a series of instrument checkouts.

Those included the ChemCam instrument.

The CheMin instrument.

RAD science.

REMS

APXS

SAM

And the additional cameras on the rover, including the MAHLI instrument.

We also downloaded some MARDI high-resolution data images. Those are from the descent imager.

Coming up this week, we’ll be using the ChemCam to zap targets for the first time.

We’ll also be deploying the arm and we’ll be checking the mobility system by doing what we call a rover bump, a short drive.

This has been your Curiosity Rover Report and check back often for more updates.