Sols 942-943 Cap Rock “Kanosh”

30 March 2015

Over the weekend, Curiosity drove further into Artist’s Drive to investigate a rock named “Kanosh.” This boulder appears to represent the “capping unit,” so we’re planning to study Kanosh in more detail to understand this resistant type of rock.

Today’s two-sol plan consists of remote sensing and contact science to investigate this boulder. We’ll acquire ChemCam on the targets “Piru,” “Little Devil,” and “Tierra Blanca.” We’ll also use MAHLI at several locations on the boulder to document the grain sizes and textures that are present, and then we’ll place APXS for an overnight integration on the target “Little Devil” on the top of the boulder. There are also a number of Mastcam observations to characterize “Kanosh” and some nearby veins and ripples. Today the team is also trying to decide if we should continue driving down Artist’s Drive, or return to “Garden City” to continue exploring the interesting veins there.

By Lauren Edgar

--Lauren is a Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of MSL science team.