Sol 3531: Moving Right Along! Again!

Since we finished up with our “Avanavero” drill activities yesterday, we’re officially back on the Martian road to the layered sulfate-bearing unit! Today we just planned a single sol’s worth of activities, and filled the day with contact science, remote sensing, and a 50m+ drive. The remote sensing and contact science activities include a MAHLI and ChemCam LIBS observation of a bedrock target named “Uai Uai,” as well as Mastcam regular and multispectral images of a vein-rich rock target named “Las Nieves” and a layered rock named “Luepa.” We’ll also use both Mastcam and Navcam to monitor the atmosphere.

My tactical role today was “Surface Properties Scientist,” also known as the SPS. I helped the rover drivers assess whether Curiosity’s parking spot was stable enough to retract the arm for the MAHLI observations, and any terrain hazards that might affect the drive. Several of Curiosity’s wheels were perched on rocks today which made the stability assessment particularly interesting, but after a lot of discussion with the rover drivers, we all agreed there was minimal risk of the rover shifting when we unstowed the arm. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we’ll be able to see the MAHLI images we collected today, and to finding ourselves a little closer to the sulfate-bearing unit.

Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory