MISSION UPDATES | November 1, 2019

Sols 2574-2576: Characterizing Central Butte

Written by Kristen Bennett, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
Sols 2574-2576: Characterizing Central Butte

In today’s plan, Curiosity is still investigating Central Butte. The rover is a little further up the side of the butte, and the goal is to characterize the different units that we can observe. The Navcam image displayed above shows the workspace (the area right in front of the rover that the arm can reach) for our weekend plan.

During the weekend plan, there is plenty of contact science. “Upperhill” will be targeted with both MAHLI and APXS after the DRT removes dust from the surface. “Stonehive” is an additional MAHLI and APXS target in the plan. Finally, “Kenmore” is a MAHLI-only target that will look at the side of a block to help us investigate sedimentary structures in this area.

ChemCam has four targets in the weekend plan including Stonehive, which is also a contact science target. ChemCam will also target “Ericht,” “Biggar,” and “Reay” to document any variations present in the workspace. Mastcam will take documentation images of all the ChemCam targets. Mastcam will also take a multispectral observation of Upperhill. This observation will take advantage of the DRT target to obtain multispectral data of a dust-cleared area. Additionally, Mastcam will take several mosaics of the butte. “Hunda” is an expansion of a previous mosaic with the same name. Interesting sedimentary structures were identified in the original mosaic, so the expanded mosaic will help us understand the extent of these sedimentary structures. “Carstairs” is a mosaic that is looking along the side of the butte in order to look at the outcropping laminations from a different angle. The final mosaic will be of the top of Central Butte to capture an area that we will not be able to drive up to.

After all of these observations, Curiosity will start driving around the butte to look at it from the other side. We expect to continue having amazing views of Central Butte at our next stop!