Another Martian Weekend” Sols 3943-3945
by Alex Innanen | Atmospheric Scientist – York University
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 12, 2023
Earth planning date: Friday, September 8, 2023: Curiosity continues its bumpy travels across the bedrock blocks this weekend. We got the good news this morning that we would be able to safely do contact science in the plan!
This means that we have a very familiar weekend plan – contact science on the first sol, a drive on the second sol, and remote science on the third sol. We’ve had this general structure on countless weekends throughout Curiosity’s travels, but the ever-changing landscape around us means that there’s always something new to see.
The two contact science targets are both on the same block close beside the rover. ‘Hydra,’ which will be brushed with the DRT before being examined by both APXS and MAHLI, is a patch of bedrock which is relatively free of the nodules that can be seen on other bedrocks around.
APXS and MAHLI will then turn their attention to ‘Dodoni,’ a raised resistant feature. That’s not all for the first sol though – ChemCam and Mastcam are continuing to document the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge, as well as LIBS on another nearby bedrock, ‘Thassos.’ Mastcam is also looking back at the Orinoco butte and in the later afternoon looking back closer afield at a layered block called ‘Rouskio.’
We’re driving away on the second sol, but before that we’re getting over an hour of science. ChemCam is doing LIBS of a dark vein on the same block as Thassos known as ‘Antiparos,’ and two long distance mosaics looking back towards the eastern crater rim.
Mastcam is taking a look at the nearby workspace as well as the contact and LIBS targets, and another resistant target, ‘Milos.’ ENV is also getting in on the pre-drive science with a dust devil movie looking at a ripple field, and a line of sight, capturing the amount of dust between us and the crater rim.
Our third and final sol picks up some remote science. We have a 360 degree dust devil survey as well as a midday suprahorizon cloud movie. ChemCam will also use AEGIS to select a target for imaging.
After a busy first two days of the plan, Curiosity gets to do plenty of napping on this last sol, but we’ll wake up for an early morning ENV block with our normal cloud movies and characterisation of the atmospheric opacity.
Related Links
Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more