Sol 1382-1383: Phobos Transit and Soliday

Contact
science in the Sol 1380-1381 plan went well, so we're back to driving in the
weekend plan!

Sol 1382
will start with a Mastcam video of Phobos crossing in front of the sun, plus a
multispectral observation of the brushed target "Koes". ChemCam will then
analyze the targets "Koes," "Kongola," and "Rundu" and Mastcam will document
those observations. After that, we will drop off some of the "Oudam" sample to
SAM for analysis.

On Sol
1383 the rover will drive and then collect the usual post-drive images,
including an 8x1 mosaic along the side of the rover to study changing textures
as we drive. We’ll also take some extra Navcam images of a crater in the
distance. Later in the day, Mastcam has a couple of atmospheric observations
and ChemCam has an auto-targeted observation.

The
weekend plan is only two sols since Sunday is a "soliday" allowing Earth and
Mars schedules to get back in sync. But the plan does include an early morning
science block for Sol 1384 to collect some atmospheric observations with Navcam
and Mastcam.

by Ryan Anderson

-Ryan is
a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of
the ChemCam team on MSL.

Dates of
planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due
to a variety of factors related to the martian environment, communication
relays and rover status