Sols 3932-3933: Touch and Go, Go, Go!
by Lucy Thompson | Planetary Geologist – UNB
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 28, 2023
Earth planning date: Monday, August 28, 2023: Curiosity successfully navigated the numerous resistant, dark boulders (once included in the Gediz Vallis ridge deposit and the focus of our recent investigations), 20 degree slopes and broken up bedrock to cover a distance of ~65 m back towards our planned ascent route up Mount Sharp in the weekend plan.
This is one of our longer recent drives, and we are planning another one tosol as we anticipate our next drilling campaign in an interesting area of alternating light and dark layers identified both from orbit and in Mastcam and Navcam imagery. Because the rover engineers have a good sightline from our current location we are hoping to “go, go, go” and drive ~55 m towards the drill area in this plan.
Before we go, go, go though, the geologists dialled in for planning today made sure to maximize the pre-drive time available to acquire chemical and textural/structural data on the rocks and strata exposed immediately surrounding the rover and further afield. We will first unstow Curiosity’s arm to investigate the composition and texture of a well-layered bedrock block, “Paion” with APXS and MAHLI. We will also utilize ChemCam to look at the composition of another bedrock target, “Amygdalea,” which will also be documented by Mastcam.
Images will also be acquired by Mastcam to observe a possible contact between the Gediz Vallis ridge deposit and the underlying bedrock, to extend the high resolution colour imagery of the area around the rover, to observe the “Psofida” dark float (probably a remnant of the Gediz Vallis deposit), and look at dust in the atmosphere with a basic tau observation. A long distance RMI mosaic of the Gale crater rim and Peace Vallis fan will also be captured with ChemCam, before the atmosphere becomes too dusty to see that far.
Once we have gone, and the drive hopefully executes successfully, a number of untargeted observations are planned. CCAM will autonomously select a target to analyze for composition with LIBS, Navcam will take a large dust devil survey and MARDI will image the new terrain beneath the rover. Standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities round out this plan.
After 11 years, Curiosity just keeps go-, go-, going!
Sols 3928-3930: Bumping Along the Gediz Vallis Ridge
by Conor Hayes | Graduate Student – York University
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 30 – Earth planning date: Wednesday, August 23, 2023: As was mentioned on Monday, we decided to forgo our usual drive to fit more science in while we are still at our upper Gediz Vallis ridge (uGVr) waypoint. Last Friday’s blog talked a little bit about how Mars seems to have been doing everything in its power to stop us from reaching the Gediz Vallis ridge, so now that we’re finally here and won’t be coming back once we leave, we want to be absolutely certain that we’ve collected all the data we want to have before we drive away.
This fact was an early motivator in planning today. Before we could sit down to determine our contact science targets, we had to decide where we wanted to drive today. We aren’t quite ready to leave the uGVr just yet, so we quickly ruled out the option of backing down off the ridge and returning to our nominal ascent route.
That left the decision between a small “bump” to poke at some nearby rocks that are just outside of the range that can be reached from our current location and a longer drive along the side of the ridge. Ultimately, we decided to go for the bump as the longer drive could risk slipping on the sandy terrain that has occasionally caused us problems over the last few months.
Because we didn’t drive, we were still positioned in a safe position to get (almost) all of our desired contact science done. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, the target that had been pre-selected on Monday for DRT was deemed to be DRT-incompatible.
However, we were still able to get APXS and MAHLI observations of “Epidaurus” and MAHLI imaging of “Limni Stymfalia.” Both of these targets will also be scrutinized by Mastcam and ChemCam LIBS. In addition, ChemCam RMI will continue its imaging of Peace Vallis on the north rim of Gale Crater and Mastcam will document a bedrock target that was selected by ChemCam AEGIS over the weekend.
After our short drive, ENV will get to work with a combined Zenith Movie and Cloud Shadow Movie observation to measure the altitude of clouds above Gale, a south-facing Suprahorizon Movie, and a 360 degree dust devil survey. GEO will use Mastcam to image the area immediately in front of us at our new location to assist with planning on Friday, and the rover will use AEGIS to autonomously select targets for ChemCam LIBS. As always, REMS, RAD, and DAN make this a complete plan with their usual suite of routine observations spread throughout.
Related Links
Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more