Sol 884: Sample Transfer to CheMin

30 January 2015

After successfully drilling the target “Mojave2” on Sol 882, the next step is to deliver the sample to CheMin for analysis. We acquired some great Mastcam and MAHLI images of the drill hole and mini drill hole, and we’re looking forward to learning more about the composition of this sample.

The main activities in today’s plan are to transfer, sieve, and drop-off the sample to CheMin, and also to acquire APXS on the drill tailings. The plan also includes a few additional frames to fill in the MAHLI self portrait.

And even though today is a Friday and we would normally be planning 3 sols to cover the weekend, the team has decided to take advantage of some Saturday operations to maximize our number of planning days. A big thanks to those team members who volunteered to work tomorrow! The rest of us will be traveling to Pasadena this weekend for our team meeting next week. I’m sure there will be a lot of new data to discuss!

By Lauren Edgar

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