Sols 3430-3431: Out Like a Lamb... "Baa"

The rover engineers better understand the minor issue that occurred after our weekend activities. While we’re still in the same location, they can fix the issue in this plan. Our arm activities in the previous plan executed successfully. Today we focused on recovering the mast activities, as well as getting bonus, additional contact science at this location before driving.

The pediment capping rocks that we are currently investigating have revealed fascinating and varied textures and chemistry, which the team is busy trying to interpret. To that end, we certainly will not complain about getting more data here. The APXS and MAHLI instruments will both investigate the “Blue Anchor” target for chemistry and close-up textures respectively, and MAHLI will also look at the “Baa” target. Both these targets occur along an apparent contact between two layers and contain white grains in the darker grey matrix (seen in Mastcam images). We are testing hypotheses as to the origin of the white grains. To complement the APXS chemistry on the Blue Anchor target, ChemCam will analyze the similar looking “Lewisian” target, and the “Braco” target. We will document the Lewisian and Braco targets, as well as the previous “Burn Mouth,” “Donkey Trail” and “Venlaw” targets with Mastcam. Mastcam will also image a block that Curiosity appears to have driven over and broken, “Bowder Stone” to look for fresh surfaces and textures. Further afield, we will acquire a ChemCam RMI mosaic of the Gediz Valles ridge and Mastcam mosaics of ridges on the pediment, and the resistant rounded exposure, “Hartle Loup,” that we are currently investigating.

The environmental scientists planned several observations to continue monitoring changes in atmospheric conditions. These included: a Navcam dust devil survey, dust devil movie and line of sight image; a ChemCam passive sky observation; and a Mastcam basic tau observation. After our hopefully successful drive, we will image the terrain beneath the rover wheels with MARDI. Standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities round out this plan.