Sol 676 Update On Curiosity From USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Rapid Traverse

Last weekend, MSL successfully backed out of the sandy ripple, pausing to image her tracks . So more driving toward Mt. Sharp is planned for this week. Because of the phasing between Earth and Mars time, we are planning rapid-traverse sols, in which the entire uplink process is completed in only 7 hours. The Sol 675 data were not received until almost 13:00 Pacific time, as expected. Therefore, the uplink team had to work later than usual to plan a ChemCam and Mastcam observation of a ripple target named Radcliff, and -- more importantly -- another drive.


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.