MISSION UPDATES | May 3, 2021

Sol 3108: Once More, with Feeling

Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
Curiosity on Mars

This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3107. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›

Curiosity started the week at her familiar “Bardou” drill location on top of "Mont Mercou,” her departure stymied once again by a stubborn MAHLI cover. The effort to close the MAHLI cover over the weekend was unsuccessful, which meant that, as with the drive, our APXS analyses of the discarded Bardou drill sample and the drill hole cuttings did not execute. The focus of today’s plan was to tweak the command to close the MAHLI cover to help ensure its success, give the APXS analyses another try, and pick up a few last observations of the terrain around us.

In good instrument news, ChemCam successfully acquired a LIBS raster of the bedrock target "Jumilhac le Grand” over the weekend, clearing the way for us to acquire another raster in this plan. To complement the representative bedrock analyzed at Jumilhac le Grand, the team chose a collection of resistant, gray-toned knobs that dot the bedrock of this area for today’s target, dubbed “Monfaucon.” ChemCam will also acquire an RMI mosaic of one of the buttes to our east that we will (hopefully) be driving farther away from tomorrow.

Keep those collective fingers crossed for MAHLI success!!