Sols 3442-3443: Deoch-an-Doris

In Scots Gaelic, “deoch-an-doris” loosely means “one for the road.” Today we planned one more set of investigations on the fascinating Feorachas outcrop before we leave it behind forever. We first visited it over a month ago as we were climbing up the Greenheugh Pediment and now we have given it a more thorough investigation on the way down thanks to some crafty driving by Curiosity’s rover planners in this craggy terrain. You can see our old rover tracks extending off into the distance in this Navcam image. Feorachas is the large block extending out of the sand in the lower right.

Today’s plan includes contact science on three targets, including “Up Helley” (near the circular scoop taken out of the upper left portion of Feorachas), and a variety of remote sensing science with ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam multispectral imaging. ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam multispectral imaging are complementary ways to understand the chemistry of the rocks we encounter on Mars.

As we’re also in the dusty season on Mars, Curiosity will take two dust devil movies and measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere above us and within Gale Crater.

Written by Scott Guzewich, Atmospheric Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center