Sols 1114-1115: Contact science on Big Sky

23 September 2015

The 14-meter Sol 1112 drive completed as planned, and the rover is in

a good position for contact science. There are flat areas in front of

the rover that are suitable for drilling, so the Sol 1114 plan includes DRT

brushing, MAHLI imaging, and APXS measurements of a target named "Big

Sky." Before the arm is deployed, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe

Big Sky and "Big Rock." I'm MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead today, so I was

busy planning MAHLI images of Big Sky before and after brushing,

making sure that the post-brush images will be well illuminated by the

sun. This required working closely with the rover planners as they

modeled the illumination of the target with the MAHLI placed close to

it. After the imaging of the brushed spot is completed, the arm will

be pushed against the potential drill targets to confirm that they can

be drilled, and low-resolution MAHLI images will be taken to look at

the imprints of the drill prongs. The APXS will briefly measure the chemistry of

an area offset a few centimeters from the center of the brush spot,

then will be placed on the center of the spot for an overnight integration.



Planning is restricted again, so we planned 2 sols of activities

today. On Sol 1115, Navcam will search for dust devils, ChemCam and

Mastcam will observe targets named "Heath," "Leigh," and the distant

slopes of Mt. Sharp. Mastcam will also acquire mosaics of "Amanda"

and the "Bagnold Dunes" toward the southwest.



by Ken Herkenhoff