Sol 3715: Back at It on the Marker Band After a Holiday-Soliday Weekend

Curiosity's science and engineering team members were back at it today after a holiday long weekend, while Curiosity itself was ready and waiting after its own soliday weekend. With the data from the holiday-soliday plan in hand, Curiosity's team was faced with the decision whether or not to drill our current location, and, if so, where.

The Marker Band has proven elusive to drill. Curiosity has tried twice prior (e.g., sol 3676 and sol 3682-3683 blogs) and today's workspace, in particular the bright material right above Curiosity's iconic arm in the included image, was hopefully going to prove fruitful on this our third attempt. However, once again, Mars had different ideas as drilling was deemed not possible here due to the nodular and bumpy nature of the workspace. We will instead execute a short drive, or bump, 3 m from our current location to a new location named "Guramoni," where the conditions for drilling look more favourable.

Complementing the drive in today's one-sol plan is a brush of the target "Tarra" followed by a quick touch-and-go APXS analysis as well as MAHLI and Mastcam images. Further imaging and a ChemCam 5x1 LIBS raster on "Faro" round out the activities at our current location ahead of bumping to Guramoni. Finally, Curiosity wraps tosol's planned activities by acquiring the requisite post-drive images, which shall arrive via a MAVEN relay in time for tomorrow's team to assess the new workspace for drilling suitability.

Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University