MISSION UPDATES | November 16, 2022

Sols 3655-3656: Try, Try Again

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3653. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3653. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›

Yesterday we weren’t able to use the arm and thus weren’t able to do contact science, but a short drive got us into a better position. Unfortunately, the dust removal tool still wasn’t safe to use at our location, so the team decided to make another drive to try again for contact science on the weekend. Even though the plan wasn’t what we expected coming in to today, we were still able to make the most of the fantastic location we’re in, and to manoeuver into a safer location.

Before the drive, we are fitting in two hours of science, packed full of ChemCam and Mastcam observations. ChemCam is doing LIBS on the target 'Caracarana' and a series of long distance mosaics of Gediz Vallis Ridge. Mastcam is joining ChemCam on Caracarana, and is documenting two bedrock targets, 'Cigana' and 'Tacari' and an area of soil scuffed by the wheel, 'Saddle Mountain.' After the drive, ChemCam is using AEGIS to autonomously select a target.

ENV is taking advantage of the great view of the crater rim and dune field, which you can see in the (slightly askew) Navcam image above. We are doing a 360 degree dust devil survey, and focusing at that view for a targeted dust devil movie. We are also taking a tau and crater rim line of sight to measure dust in the atmosphere, and a suprahorizon cloud movie.