MISSION UPDATES | February 2, 2022

Sols 3376-3377: Second Servings at the Prow

Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 2, 2022, Sol 3374 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 00:54:34 UTC.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 2, 2022, Sol 3374 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 00:54:34 UTC. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Download image ›

The above image is a MAHLI image of a small part of the Toron block in front of the rover. Take a moment to marvel at all the details. We arrived here two sols ago and didn’t drive away just yet to get some second servings. If you look closely at the image above, all the details will be telling you why we are very happy that we are able to get second servings of the Toron block. In other words, we have another sol to add investigations of details on this block and in the area. In detail, ChemCam is looking at the target ‘Apocaila’ to document the most common rock in the area, and the one which our rover is currently parked on. This so-called bedrock is also the target of Mastcam this sol, with a large mosaic starboard of our rover. ChemCam is also turning its attention back to the Toron block for the second servings investigating the target ‘Paure,’ which is on a different part of the Toron block from what was imaged yesterday, so we can get one more set of MAHLI images of all those awesome details.

Looking slightly further afield, ChemCam will get an RMI mosaic on the target ‘Paure’ to document even more of all those fascinating sedimentary structures. Even further afield the landscape looks equally exciting, and therefore ChemCam has a long distance RMI in the plan to get images from an area in the distance to get a closer look at some intriguing structures that look like thicker bedding or maybe something else. That’s for the new images to reveal as the ones we have do not quite have the resolution to make that decision. But that’s what long distance RMIs are for! Make sure you check the raw images page on this website in the coming days.

The rover is going to drive, and after that the standard set of navigation camera images will help the next planning and of course they are also the first ones to reveal science details of the new parking position. ChemCam will add an AEGIS observation – and throughout the plan there are observations of the atmospheric conditions, too. It’s a busy two sols for Curiosity!