Sols 924-927: Garden City Here We Come!

13 March 2015

Yesterday was a challenging day on Mars and Earth. On Mars, the rover stopped its drive early because it detected that its wheels were slipping in the sand, so we weren’t where we expected to be and we had to adjust our observations accordingly. At the same time on Earth, some network issues at JPL made it difficult for many of us to connect to the tools that we use to do our planning. Luckily those issues didn’t start up until the planning for Sol 924 was pretty far along, so we were still able to get a good plan put together.

On sol 924, ChemCam analyzed a layered rock target called “Hennefer”, and Mastcam took a supporting image. Mastcam also took a mosaic of the outcrop we are heading toward, called “Garden City”, as well as a small mosaic of the sand ripple (called “Tropic Ripple”) near where we stopped, and a mosaic of a tiny crater that we called “Hemicyon Basin.”

After that, the rover continued on its drive toward Garden City. After the drive, ChemCam did a calibration measurement, MAHLI took an image from its stowed position, and Mastcam took a 2x1 mosaic looking back across the floor of Gale crater toward the “Peace Vallis” alluvial fan. Mastcam and Navcam also had some atmospheric observations, and Mastcam and Navcam also took some standard post-drive mosaics.

This morning things were a lot smoother. We started off planning ogling the beautiful images of the Garden City outcrop, which is cris-crossed with erosion resistant ridges. The plan for sol 925 is to do a ChemCam analysis and associated Mastcam mosaic on one of the nearby ridges called “San Timoteo”, along with a Mastcam stereo mosaic of Garden City. Later in the day, ChemCam has an observation of a dark rock to test some focusing settings on a very dark target. Then CheMin will do an overnight analysis on the sample that it is currently working on.

On the morning of sol 926m ChemCam has some passive observations of the sky, and Mastcam and Navcam also have some atmospheric measurements. Then the rover will do a short drive toward Garden City, followed by standard imaging plus some extra Navcams of the hill that is rising above us.

Finally on sol 927, Mastcam and Navcam have some more atmospheric measurements.

Next week many of us on the science team will be at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, but we will also be eagerly checking in on what Curiosity is doing at the tantalizing Garden City outcrop.

by Ryan Anderson

-Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.