Sols 3437-3438: Got a Hitch in Our Giddyup

We successfully drove further down off of the “Greenheugh pediment” as we head toward smoother driving pathways downhill. However, the chaotic jumble of terrain we encountered in the final few rolls of our wheels left a couple of our wheels perched awkwardly. That meant we could not get out the arm for contact science, lest our large arm swinging around cause the rover to shift unexpectedly. It also meant that our rover drivers wanted to scoot the rover off of the offending terrain to put all six wheels on terra firma (or the Martian equivalent) before attempting another drive. Thus, our drive today aims to reposition the rover for weekend observations.

Before our repositioning, we planned an extensive set of imaging and analyses with ChemCam and Mastcam. ChemCam will acquire chemistry from a beautifully layered bedrock outcrop, “Fort Charlotte,” and will acquire an RMI mosaic from the top section of Gediz Vallis Ridge, which we can still see despite dropping in elevation in our last drive. Mastcam will acquire three mosaics to cover the intricate bedrock structures in this area. Two of these mosaics center on the bedrock ridge in the midfield of the above image, dubbed “Feorachas” on our first pass through this area. The ridge, and the linear features extending away from it, are of great interest for what they might reveal about the history of this part of the pediment. The third mosaic centers on the bedrock in the workspace in front of the rover, which will come in handy as we (hopefully) plan contact science within it over the weekend. We will also look skyward, with a Navcam image to monitor the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and a Navcam cloud movie.

After we settle our wheels, we plan to acquire an automated ChemCam raster from the surrounding bedrock, a ChemCam passive observation of the atmosphere, a Mastcam tau measurement, and a Navcam dust devil survey. We will acquire a DAN active measurement after we move to complement the longer DAN passive measurements that span parts of each sol. REMS and RAD make their systematic measurements throughout both sols.

Here’s hoping the weekend goes off without a hitch!