Mars
Curiosity Rover
Image taken by the ChemCam RMI on sol 2242 of target "Little Colonsay," a potential meteorite.
Curiosity woke up to Mr Rogers "Please would you be my neighbour" this morning to welcome InSight, and then got very busy at the Highfield drill site. Every plan has its personality, and the upcoming one is that of a gymnast - at least as far as the arm is concerned: Curiosity will dump the Highfield sample, which requires several MAHLI looks and an APXS operation, but the plan also requires swinging the arm out of the way so other instruments can have their unobscured look at the dump pile.
Of course, the main activity is to look at the Highfield dump pile with all instruments available. APXS will get the chemistry, and Navcam, Mastcam and MAHLI will have a close look. In addition, a Mastcam multispectral and a ChemCam passive observation will add to the information collected from the dump pile.
Not only the arm, but also ChemCam is very busy these two sols, as in addition to the dump pile activities, it will look at four samples, two of which are re-targeted. One of the samples that we try to get a better look at is "Little Colonsay." The planning team thinks it might be a meteorite because it is so shiny. But looks can deceive, and proof will only come from the chemistry. Unfortunately, the small target was missed in the previous attempt, and with the information from that, Curiosity will try again. Another very small target is the target "Flanders Moss," which shows an interesting, dark coloured coating, for which chemistry is required to confirm its nature. Two additional targets, "Forres" and "Eildon," are to add to the database of the grey Jura bedrock before we leave the Highfield site next week.
Beyond ChemCam, Curiosity will document the workspace with a Mastcam M34 mosaic, and of course document all ChemCam targets. Finally, the environmental observations continue with a crater rim extinction, Mastcam Tau and dust devil monitoring. …a busy two sols on Mars!
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.
Cameras
Spectrometers
Radiation Detectors
Environmental Sensors
The Sol 2502-2503 plan starts with a couple of ChemCam observations on the bedrock targets "Papigoe" and "Princes Street," followed by a Mastcam stereo mosaic of "Stone Row."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 20, 2019
Conjunction is the few-week period when Mars goes behind the sun and we stop communicating with our spacecraft that are there.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 16, 2019
This morning, after seeing that the redo of the SAM Preconditioning in Monday's plan was successful, the SAM team was ready to drop-off four portions to SAM for evolved gas analysis.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 14, 2019
Today's planning began with a bit of a shuffle as we learned that the sample cup that was used for SAM preconditioning over the weekend didn't seal as well as desired.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 12, 2019
It's the end of another week on Mars, and today we put together a 3 sol weekend plan for Curiosity.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 12, 2019
Over the weekend, Curiosity successfully dropped off a portion of the Glen Etive drill sample.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 8, 2019
On Sunday morning the team received the message that Curiosity's latest drill hole was successful at "Glen Etive."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 5, 2019
Late during planning yesterday, we got the go ahead to proceed with full drilling at "Glen Etive 1."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 2, 2019
Today's science activities were planned with the hopes of drilling our next target this weekend.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 1, 2019
Planning today was focused on getting more compositional and textural information on top of this small ridge that we plan to attempt drilling at the weekend.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
August 1, 2019
The rover is currently located in the southern part of the "Visionarium," where we are set to start our next drill campaign, and we can't help but take in the scenery!
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 30, 2019
After a successful ascent to the top of the southern outcrop in the "Visionarium," we are now searching for our next drill site.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 29, 2019
Over the last few weeks Curiosity has collected hundreds of spectacular images, that document the layers and textures of rocks exposed in the "Visionarium."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 27, 2019
Europeans, Californians… and many others on the team watched their thermometers rise to record highs today, reaching 36 °C in this blogger's hometown "Milton Keynes."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 25, 2019
This morning Curiosity found herself parked at the base of the southern escarpment of the Visionarium.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 24, 2019
It's winter for Curiosity, and it's cold. That means that we have to spend extra energy heating up the instruments and motors for our activities. All of our energy comes from batteries, charged by the RTG.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 23, 2019
Today's one-sol plan included both remote science and contact science. The team planned a large Mastcam mosaic of the outcrop located to the south of Curiosity.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 22, 2019
Curiosity is still parked in front of an outcrop known as "Sandside Harbour" in order to investigate differences in the lighter and darker outcrop expressions. Contact science in the previous plan went well, and today we have one more opportunity to look for differences in sedimentary structures and composition before driving on to the next outcrop.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 22, 2019
Today, Curiosity finds itself parked in front of a fascinating area of martian bedrock with clearly lighter and darker colored areas next to each other.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 17, 2019
Curiosity finished up our investigation at Harlaw Rise on the weekend, and commenced our drive to an area we are (informally) calling the "Southern Outcrop," another of the ridge features that are so prominent in this part of Glen Torridon.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 16, 2019
The Sol 2463 drive went as planned, leaving the rover in position to examine what appears to be a small dome in the sedimentary rocks.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 12, 2019
Curiosity continued work on and around the gorgeous outcrop pictured above that was started on Sol 2461.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 11, 2019
MAHLI was busy over the weekend. The data from Mars returned a trove of close-up images from the outcrop near the top of "Harlaw Rise," including the one shown here.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 8, 2019
Curiosity will continue to investigate the rocky Harlaw region of the Glen Torridon formation on this holiday weekend.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 3, 2019
The 4th of July is coming up - and so the team worked to keep the rover busy without keeping ourselves busy!
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 2, 2019
Curiosity is currently near the top of Harlaw Rise, having made a slight diversion from the southward drive through the clay-bearing unit to explore the nice exposures of rocks on this hill.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
July 1, 2019
Curiosity has been a bit down lately-in elevation. After exploring the top of Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) last year, the rover descended into a trough south of the ridge, dropping as much as 15 meters in elevation this spring to explore part of the clay-bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 28, 2019
Curiosity is parked in front of a ridge-forming outcrop known as "Harlaw" in the Glen Torridon region, and the team had some fun with naming targets today.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 28, 2019
We are continuing our exploration of Glen Torridon (the clay-bearing unit) and the varied lithologies exposed in this area of Gale crater, including more rubbly bedrock that is mixed with sand, and more coherent bedrock exposed both in the ground and capping prominent ridges.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 27, 2019
Our drive on Sol 2447 stopped a bit short, placing us on an area that was mostly gravel.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 25, 2019
Today's plan wrapped up our time at the Teal Ridge outcrop and we'll begin to drive toward the next waypoint in the clay-bearing unit of Gale Crater.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 25, 2019
Curiosity is still perched on top of Teal Ridge to investigate a fascinating outcrop that caps the ridge. The above Navcam image shows the view off to the right of Curiosity.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 24, 2019
Curiosity is still parked at a tilt of a little over 23˚ to examine the outcrop on top of "Teal Ridge."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 20, 2019
Curiosity is still parked on Teal Ridge and is in the midst of an extended contact science campaign.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 19, 2019
Curiosity's most recent transmission didn't come down as expected, so our plan today is to command the rover to retransmit its latest data.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 17, 2019
We are investigating the ridges which are such a prominent feature in this section of Glen Torridon.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 14, 2019
The planning day started with a change of plans. Due to a late-breaking change in relay pass scheduling, the decisional pass in today's plan was much earlier in the plan than we expected.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 14, 2019
After yesterday's soliday for the rover operations team on Earth, we went back to work planning activities for Curiosity to complete on sol 2435 in the Glen Torridon area.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 13, 2019
It's a good thing that Curiosity doesn't have any competition on the road as she drives fervently across undulating terrain towards a large geologic ridge of unknown origin (informally named "Waypoint 4").
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 10, 2019
After yesterday's 47 meter drive, Curiosity awoke to a much different landscape than she had been analyzing over the past week.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 8, 2019
The original plan for Sol 2429 involved a "touch-and-go" where the rover would have engaged in contact science (that's the "touch" portion) followed by a drive (the "go" portion), but through discussion the instrument leads determined tactically that they were satisfied with the contact science already acquired at this location.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 6, 2019
The main focus of today's plan was observations of the interbedded thick and thin layers we found at Woodland Bay before we drive away again, perhaps as early as the next plan.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 5, 2019
Today we planned the weekend activities for Curiosity in Woodland Bay.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 3, 2019
On Sol 2420 Curiosity drove ~61 m back to the "Woodland Bay" target, to analyze some interesting thick and thin laminations within the bedrock that we had observed previously, and to characterize compositional diversity.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
June 3, 2019
We've left multiple tracks across the cobblestone plain of Glen Torridon.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 28, 2019
At the start of today's planning, the Geology theme group (GEO) had a major decision to make, whether to drill here at "Broad Cairn" or not.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 24, 2019
After a short six meter drive to "Hallaig," the science team began the investigation of a new potential drill target named "Broad Cairn," a flat spot on a bright block in the clay-bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 23, 2019
Curiosity is investigating an area that is very high in potassium, and we're trying to characterize the distribution and the source of that potassium.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 21, 2019
After spending the weekend playing in the sand of a nearby ripple field, Curiosity is back on the move, searching for our next drill target.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 20, 2019
Curiosity is continuing the investigations at "Rigg."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 20, 2019
The sol 2408 plan ended with the rover using its front wheel to dig a small trench in a ripple at the ripple field named "Rigg."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 16, 2019
Now that we're back on the road following our drill campaign at Kilmarie, Curiosity is planning a quick "touch-and-go" activity today to characterize the local bedrock.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 15, 2019
We're driving today! …but only about three meters.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 14, 2019
Today we developed a 3 sol plan geared towards wrapping up activities at the "Kilmarie" drill site.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 10, 2019
We got the go ahead at the start of planning to proceed with dumping the Kilmarie drill fines from the drill bit assembly.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 9, 2019
Mars is steadily moving toward the cloudiest time of year at low latitudes, which occurs from about southern mid fall through mid winter.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 7, 2019
The first round of SAM experiments was successful, so in the weekend plan we get to move forward with the GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer) experiment.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 3, 2019
The drop off of "Kilmarie" drill sample to SAM on Sol 2293 appeared to be successful, but we will not get the full results of the SAM analysis until later today.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
May 2, 2019
Today's main activities use the "laboratory" instruments SAM and CheMin inside of Curiosity to analyze some of the powder from the Kilmarie drill hole.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 29, 2019
We started planning in eager anticipation of the preliminary results from our downlink and whether the CheMin X-ray diffraction spectrometer received enough sample of the "Kilmarie" drill sample to successfully complete a first night of analysis.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 26, 2019
In the plan today, the top priority was to drop off some sample from the Kilmarie drill hole to the CheMin instrument in order to begin the process of obtaining quantitative mineralogy.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 24, 2019
The drilling planned for last weekend was successful, so the top priority for Sol 2386 is to drop portions of the Kilmarie sample onto a closed SAM inlet cover and take Mastcam images after each dropoff to characterize the size of each portion.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 22, 2019
Yestersol's drill pre-load test was successful, so today we are go for a drill attempt at "Kilmarie!"
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 19, 2019
Some days just give me goose bumps. First, looking at yesterday's plan I realized that we did something really unusual overnight: Wrap up the drill activity on one site and start the drill activities on the next in the same sol.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 19, 2019
Curiosity is finishing up at "Aberlady" and ready to move on to our next drill target. We are preparing to drill a second hole in the clay bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 17, 2019
Yesterday's discussions with the science team focused on determining which target in the vicinity of "Aberlady" will become the focus of the next drill campaign: target 2, or target 3 (pictured in the Sol 2379 Mission Update).
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 16, 2019
With our time at Aberlady coming to a close, the search for our next drill target is in full swing. On Friday, the team discussed two different "bump" options that are near our current workspace and may be drillable.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 15, 2019
We are continuing the sequence of drill activities at Aberlady.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 13, 2019
Today we received the initial results from CheMin's analysis of the "Aberlady" drill sample, and they look great!
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 12, 2019
This week's drill activities have been very power-intensive for Curiosity. So we'll spend today, Sol 2374, catching up on some remote science observations while waiting for data from yesterday's CheMin run to arrive.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 11, 2019
After looking at our exciting new drill hole, "Aberlady," a few interesting observations were made: the drilled block lifted up a centimeter or two as the drill was retracted, there might be some evidence of a horizontal calcium sulfate (i.e. gypsum) vein within the drill hole, the drill went into the rock very easily (no percussion required), and the drill tailings look clumpier than usual.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 10, 2019
Our drill attempt at target "Aberlady" this weekend was a success! In today's plan we are continuing our investigation of Aberlady and the surrounding areas and preparing to deliver our drilled sample to our onboard instruments.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 9, 2019
We are go for full drill! Today's plan will see Curiosity execute the final preparatory steps and then drill at our "Aberlady" bedrock target.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 5, 2019
Today marks the conclusion of the MSL Science Team Meeting currently taking place at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 5, 2019
Our short drive on Monday was successful, bringing two candidate drill targets into closer, clearer view.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 3, 2019
One of the primary goals of the Curiosity mission, to determine the composition of a region which appears to be rich in clays (informally known as "Glen Torridon") is getting closer to being achieved.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 2, 2019
Curiosity is getting close to the area in which we next want to drill. We are possibly as close as 2-3 drives (including today's) away from our next drill target!
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
April 1, 2019
We are continuing to find interesting new things in Glen Torridon. One of my favorite new images was taken this weekend (Mars sol 2356) on target "Stonebriggs."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 28, 2019
At the start of Sol 2359, Curiosity found herself parked in front of some layered bedrock outcrops, a rarity in the rubbly landscapes that we've explored so far in the clay-bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 25, 2019
As Curiosity makes her way to the site where the science team would like to drill next, there is no shortage of observations to make of the many different lithologies of the clay-bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 23, 2019
Today was a fun, busy day to plan. Curiosity finally made the drive to a rock called "Muir of Ord," which has a cracked surface.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 19, 2019
The Curiosity Operations team planned a 3-sol plan today, with lots of activities for both the Environmental (ENV) and Geology (GEO) theme groups.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 18, 2019
Curiosity is back to work after another hiatus due to a computer reset.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 14, 2019
In the current plan, we start with a dust devil survey to look for them while they are still in season. This is followed by a ChemCam investigation "Schiehallion" and an RMI mosaic on "Motherwell." Mastcam will finish off the investigation with multispectral images on the block in front of us, which contain the previous APXS targets "Fife" and "Arbuthnott." So far, so routine, but then there was the look in the rear-view mirror!
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 6, 2019
Today we planned Sol 2338 chock full of science activities to finish up our observations at the "Midland Valley" outcrop. We'll primarily use our Mastcam and ChemCam instruments to take a closer look at some interesting rock targets in our workspace.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
March 4, 2019
Curiosity returned to science planning today after a two week hiatus because of a technical issue. Our most recent science plan, described in the blog for Sols 2320-2323, included a drive towards a blocky outcrop called "Midland Valley."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 28, 2019
Today was a very busy planning day for the Curiosity operations team. We planned a 3-sol plan, with contact science, imaging, environmental monitoring and a drive.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 14, 2019
Similar to its namesake in Scotland, the Glen Torridon area on Mars affords us stunning vistas, but in our case, of the relatively low-lying clay bearing (from orbit) unit flanked to the north by the higher ground of the Vera Rubin Ridge and to the south, by Mount Sharp.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 11, 2019
Curiosity is driving across the clay-bearing unit, which is still a very new terrain with many details yet to be understood.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 11, 2019
Curiosity is cruising through the clay-bearing unit on some compacted clast-rich soil.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 6, 2019
The accompanying image shows the target "Brent" in the lower right corner; it was analyzed with ChemCam and APXS, and imaged with MAHLI over the weekend.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 4, 2019
Curiosity successfully completed her drive yesterday and is currently parked on top of one of the ridges ("Knockfarril Hill") in the clay-bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
February 1, 2019
In today's plan, Curiosity is venturing further into the clay unit territory.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 30, 2019
Today's plan found Curiosity solidly in new territory and the view couldn't be more different than the patchy bedrock of the Vera Rubin Ridge.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 29, 2019
This weekend's plan started off on Sol 2301 with some Mastcam atmospheric observations, followed by ChemCam analysis of "Loch Ness" and "Loch Skeen," examples of brown and gray bedrock.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 28, 2019
Curiosity is on the brink of descending down off the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) onto the clay-bearing unit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 24, 2019
Curiosity is continuing the first phase of its journey to the "clay-bearing unit," the low elevation portion in the middle distance of this Navcam image with a series of "touch-and-go" driving sols.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 23, 2019
Curiosity has moved for the first time since December 13, 2018. More importantly, Curiosity is moving to a new geological unit that we have so far called the "Clay-Bearing Unit".
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 22, 2019
Sometimes the best laid plans of rovers go astray. After wrapping up at the Rock Hall drill site yesterday, the plan was for Curiosity to start driving towards the clay-bearing unit, starting with a series of small bumps so that MAHLI could take images of the full outer circumference of the wheels.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 18, 2019
It has been a productive stay at the "Rock Hall" drill site.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 18, 2019
Today was our last day at "Rock Hall," so it was our final chance to get every last bit of science at this location. We had a 2.5 hour science block filled with Mastcam change detection imaging of the Rock Hall drill fines and alternating ChemCam RMI and LIBS observations of the Rock Hall dump pile, drill tailings, and target "St.Cyrus 2."
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 17, 2019
Today we planned a single sol of activities, Sol 2291. As we begin to wrap up our activities at the Rock Hall drill site, Sol 2291 is chock full of science observations. We'll begin the sol with an hour-long science block.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 14, 2019
We will soon be leaving the Rock Hall area, thus this one last look at the drill site from a hazard camera perspective. Seeing those holes always is special, even for #19!
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 11, 2019
Our onboard instruments SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) and CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) have come to the end of their investigation of the Rock Hall target, likely to be our last drill location on the Vera Rubin Ridge, so this 2-sol plan is the beginning of the drill operation wrap up.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 10, 2019
Today was a very smooth planning day on Mars, with the first scheduled science block in the plan being entirely filled by various spectroscopic ChemCam observations. The ChemCam instrument has the capabilities to be used in both passive and active modes, both of which were included in today's plan.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 7, 2019
Today we are continuing the drill campaign at our red Jura target "Rock Hall." The focus of this weekend's plan is the dropoff of the Rock Hall sample to the SAM instrument, which will occur on Sol 2281.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 7, 2019
The holiday planning completed successfully and included 10 sols of five-hour-long morning meteorological observations by REMS, during the period when more complex activities were precluded.
NASA/JPL-Caltech |
January 4, 2019
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