Sols 3022-3023: At the Contact

Curiosity is currently within the fractured intermediate unit and in the previous drive the rover reached a contact between two sub-units. On one side of the contact there are many large broken pieces of bedrock (rubbly; left side of above image), while the other side is smoother (right side of above image). In this plan we are characterizing the contact before driving into the rubbly sub-unit.

Several Mastcam mosaics are planned that span across the contact so we can document this view. There is also a contact science target, “Tamnies,” that will be our last contact science target in this sub-unit before the rover crosses into the rubbly fractured intermediate unit. Both an APXS observation and MAHLI images are planned at Tamnies, in addition to a Mastcam multispectral observation.

The plan includes a Deimos transit observation in the afternoon. In this observation Mastcam will take several images to capture Mars’s moon Deimos as it moves across the sun.

A ~25-meter drive is planned for Curiosity to venture into the rubbly fractured intermediate unit and continue traversing towards the next key target: the sulfate unit.

Written by Kristen Bennett, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center