Sol 1285: Still driving across the Naukluft Plateau

17 March 2016

Curiosity is still working her way across the Naukluft Plateau. On Sol 1284 Curiosity drove ~27 m, which brings our total traverse distance to ~12,549 m. Today’s plan is fairly straightforward. In the morning, Curiosity will acquire Mastcam and ChemCam on targets named “Mulden” and “Koigab” to characterize the bedrock that we’ve been driving over. We’ll also take a Mastcam mosaic to investigate the local stratigraphy. Then Curiosity will continue driving towards the northwest, and will take post-drive imaging to prepare for contact science over the weekend. Early the next morning, Curiosity will take several Navcam, Mastcam, and ChemCam observations to monitor the atmospheric composition and opacity and search for clouds. I’ll be on duty tomorrow as GSTL, so I’m looking forward to planning some contact science!

By Lauren Edgar

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