13 August 2015

The 47 meter drive on sol 1073 went exactly as expected, putting us in a good position for the sol 1074 plan. It’s a pretty simple plan today, with time for a single ChemCam observation of a target called “Crazy Mountain”. I got to pick the name for this target (one of my favorite parts of being involved in operations), and it seemed fitting since the target is on a big layered block that is tilted at a crazy angle. Mastcam will take a 3x3 mosaic of this rock, plus a right-eye image of the target “Blodget” and a 20x1 mosaic of the outcrops and mesas to the east, named “Sa-ol-Sooth”. After that, we will drive some more, and do some post-drive imaging so that we can do some targeted observations in the weekend plan.

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.