Sols 1693-1694: Remote science and onward!

Today we planned two sols, 1693 and 1694. On the first sol, we will conduct a suite of remote science observations before driving away and resuming our trek up Mount Sharp. These remote observations include a combination of atmospheric and bedrock measurements, giving us a really thorough dataset at this location. Our atmospheric observations include a ChemCam passive sky, Navcam zenith movie, suprahorizon movie, and a few Mastcam images that will help us measure atmospheric scattering.

For our bedrock observations, we will be conducting two ChemCam rasters and a Mastcam multispectral activity on the dark bedrock target named "Bear Island" that can be seen in the upper left in the image above. We got our first look at Bear Island in yesterday’s plan and decided it was an interesting enough target to warrant further investigation by ChemCam and Mastcam.

Following our remote science observations, we will drive away and take some post-drive images to set ourselves up for a busy weekend of exciting contact and remote science! After the drive, we will be taking our third round of Phobos transit images with Mastcam as well as an automated ChemCam AEGIS observation. On sol 1694, we will conduct a Navcam dust devil movie and calibrate the ChemCam instrument.