Sol 1852 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Feeding SAM some sand (20 Oct 2017)

MSL drove over 20 meters on Sol 1850, to an area with lots of bedrock exposed. We had several nice targets to choose from, but were limited in what we could plan because we want to prepare for a SAM evolved gas analysis (EGA) of sand from "Ogunquit Beach," which requires significant power. We are planning only 2 sols today, to get synced back up with "Mars time" on Monday, so will not be driving this weekend.

Despite the power constraints, we were able to plan a lot of activities today. Sol 1852 will start with Navcam searches for clouds and dust devils, followed by Mastcam mosaics of the expected path ahead (southward). Then ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe bedrock target "Balfour" and a block named "Ripon." Late that afternoon, MAHLI will acquire a full suite of images of Balfour before APXS is placed on it for an overnight integration. We considered brushing Balfour before examining it with MAHLI and APXS, but to save time/power we decided not to. The ChemCam laser often cleans dust off of the surface of rock targets, so we're hoping that will suffice on Balfour.

On Sol 1853, the long-awaited drop-off of Ogunquit Beach sample to SAM is planned! This activity was delayed by the drill anomaly and the testing that followed, so we are excited to be planning it today. If all goes well, the SAM EGA will be planned on Monday.

Sol 1853-54 update by Scott Guzewich: Space is Hard (24 Oct 2017)

Our exploration of space, and Gale Crater specifically, is enabled by incredible technology and amazing engineers and scientists. But, circumstances constantly remind us that space is hard. It's a hostile environment to both people and technology and we have to strive constantly to keep things working so we can continue to explore Gale Crater. Since last December, that has involved Curiosity's team of engineers and scientists working to diagnose and then work-around a problem with the drill. That effort has made excellent progress and we hope to be able to drill Mars rocks again in the not-too-distant future! Associated with that is designing new methods to deliver samples of those rocks to Curiosity's laboratories: CheMin and SAM. Mastcam imaged the inlets for SAM on the rover deck yestersol.

We prepared a packed science plan for Curiosity today, including a SAM analysis of a "doggy-bagged" sample of martian sand from a location called "Ogunquit Beach" that the rover visited months ago and a sure-to-be spectacular Mastcam panorama of the Gale Crater floor ("Aeolis Palus" in scientific jargon). However, space is hard, and some technical issues with NASA's Deep Space Network of satellite dishes around the world prevented us from sending Curiosity its marching orders. But, those activities will hopefully be retried in the next few days.

Sol 1856-1857 update by Rachel Kronyak: Take two (almost)! (25 Oct 2017)

After Monday's communications hiccup (detailed here) that prevented us from uplinking our two-sol plan, today we're hoping to redo most of what we had in Monday's plan. This primarily includes a remote science block, during which we'll shoot a few ChemCam targets named "Hartley," "Hooggenoeg," and "Beaufort" to study nearby pebbles and bedrock. We'll also look behind us to take some Mastcam mosaics of Aeolis Palus, the Gale crater plains to the north of Mount Sharp. We'll take some additional Mastcam images to document local bedrock features as well as the Vera Rubin Ridge terrain just in front of the rover.

We originally planned to do a SAM analysis of our stored "Ogunquit Beach" sand sample, but we came across a late breaking issue that caused us to remove the activity from the plan. It turns out that Mastcam images showed that the sample may not have made it into the SAM instrument. As a precautionary measure, we decided to forego the analysis for today since there is a chance that the SAM sample cup is empty. Better luck on Friday!

Sol 1861-1862 update by Ryan Anderson: The Curse of Vera Rubin Ridge Strikes Again (30 Oct 2017)

We are starting to suspect that Vera Rubin Ridge might be cursed. After the challenges we faced last week, we were hoping for a successful weekend plan but alas, it was not to be. Over the weekend Curiosity's arm didn't heat up as much as it was supposed to, so the arm activity failed and most of the weekend plan was lost. So today the name of the game is to try again!

The main activity in the 1861-1862 plan is another attempt at dropping off the "Ogunquit Beach" sample in the SAM instrument, followed by SAM Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) of the sample. In other words, SAM will heat the sample and measure what gases are produced. On sol 1862 there will be a science block where we will try to recover some of the remote sensing that was planned for the weekend. This will begin with a Mastcam mosaic that builds upon some previous Mastcam images of "Region 7", followed by ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the bedrock targets "Schmidtsdrif" and "Estecourt" as well as the soil target "Lisbon". The science block will end the way it began, with another Mastcam mosaic building upon a different previous mosaic of an area currently called "Region 6". Navcam will also watch for clouds overhead and Mastcam will do a routine observation of the rocks and soil near the rover to check for any changes.

Hopefully we have seen the worst of Vera Rubin Ridge's "curse", and we'll be able to finish this SAM analysis and start driving again shortly!

Sol 1863 update by Roger Wiens: Planning to Drive Again (1 Nov 2017)

Curiosity will finally be back on the move. The rover made an unexpected stop of nearly two weeks in the current location due to several things ranging from failed uplinks to insufficient arm heating and a camera glitch. It reminds us that everything must work just right to successfully operate a robot on Mars. In addition to thorough remote and contact analyses of this stop, Curiosity had several other notable accomplishments, including placing the drill down on the ground for a test, and dropping off a sample of "Ogunquit Beach" dune soil to SAM for evolved gas analysis.

The rover team is planning two sols of operation. Curiosity has a ~25 meter drive planned for Thursday, hoping to stop between the two sandy areas shown to the left and right in the image. Before the drive it is doing ChemCam observations on "Gravelotte," "Sibasa," and "Brooklands." APXS will have an observation of "Sibasa" and an overnight integration on "Gamka," both after DRT brushing. MAHLI will make observations of these two as well as of the REMS UV sensor. Mastcam will follow up on all of the Mars surface targets. On the second night ChemCam will take two passive observations to test its detector noise levels at two different temperatures. Observations also include REMS and RAD Get_Data, DAN passive integrations, and post-drive imaging to set up for the weekend operations.

Sol 1865 update by Michelle Minitti: Back in the saddle again (6 Nov 2017)

On Sol 1864, Curiosity successfully got a move on from her inadvertent layover stop, which presented the science team with a new workspace, and a new view of the structures exposed in the "Vera Rubin Ridge." The team grabbed as many observations of this new piece of real estate as they could fit in the plan, not only because they were happy with the change of scenery, but because the plan is to drive once again this weekend!

Both MAHLI and APXS will look at the targets "Barberton" and "Campbellrand" using somewhat unusual techniques. MAHLI will image both Barberton (a patch of bedrock with a rough, nodular texture) and Campbellrand, a smooth patch of Vera Rubin Ridge bedrock at night using her white light LEDs to illuminate the target. The choice of night imaging was driven by the poor workspace illumination expected at the more-typical daytime imaging times. When Curiosity is parked facing eastern headings, as she was today, the rover arm and body cast shadows on the workspace in front of the rover. Shadows across MAHLI images make it more challenging to see the color and texture of the targets. MAHLI's white light LEDs are not quite bright enough to use during the day to fill in these shadows, but in the dark of night, they illuminate targets brightly, giving the team an unfettered look at their rocks of interest.

APXS will analyze Barberton using their raster technique. In a raster, APXS is placed at multiple spots, each slightly offset from one another, over a target that is hypothesized to have at least two different chemical components. In the case of Barberton, these two different components are the background bedrock and the material producing the nodular texture. The slightly different spots measured by APXS yield slightly different chemistries. By using the MAHLI images that accompany each APXS analysis to determine how much of each component is within each spot, the chemistry of the components can be separated from one another. Barberton chemistry will also be probed by ChemCam before MAHLI and APXS look at it.

Mastcam had many new features and structures to look at even just 25 m away from our last stop. South and east of Curiosity were two prime mosaic targets: bedrock exposures identified from orbit, which proved even more interesting on the ground. Stereo imaging of both these areas will allow the team to measure the bedding orientations in this part of the Vera Rubin Ridge, perhaps gaining more clues to its origin. Mastcam will also turn her filters on one of these bedrock areas to probe its iron mineralogy. Smaller, closer targets of interest for Mastcam were also available including "Belingwe" (a vertical exposure of nodular bedrock) and "Bergersdorp" (a resistant bedrock layer).

The environment-minded members of the science team planned a suite of observations - movies looking for clouds and dust devils, and images assessing the dust load in the atmosphere - at three different times of day throughout the weekend. Taking measurements at multiple times of day helps the team understand how the Martian atmosphere behaves throughout the course of a sol in Gale.

After the successful completion of all these activities, Curiosity will drive ~22 m further up the ridge toward another bedrock exposure of interest. Here's hoping the new vistas keep coming!

Sols 1868-1869 update by Lauren Edgar: Hello gorgeous (7 Nov 2017)

It was a good weekend on Mars. Curiosity spent the weekend exploring a beautiful outcrop of sedimentary rocks (shown in the above image) as part of our continued investigation of the middle and upper parts of Vera Rubin Ridge. Images like these will help us figure out the environment in which these rocks were deposited.

Today's two-sol plan is focused on additional imaging of a different part of this outcrop to better constrain the sedimentary structures and the transport directions that they record. We planned a large Mastcam stereo mosaic of the outcrop seen in this Navcam image, as well as a ChemCam RMI mosaic to get even higher resolution imaging of a small portion of the section. The plan also includes MAHLI and APXS observations of the target "Volksrust" to characterize typical bedrock in this location, as well as a number of environmental monitoring observations to investigate the spectral characteristics and dust content of the atmosphere. On the second sol, Curiosity will drive toward our next outcrop and prepare for more contact science and imaging. Can't wait to see what the next stop will hold!

Sol 1870-1871 update by Rachel Kronyak: Back in the groove (8 Nov 2017)

Above is a Navcam image of Curiosity's location after a successful drive on Sol 1869. The shadows show the Robotic Arm (RA) and turret on the left, and the Remote Sensing Mast (RSM) to the lower right. I can't help but think that Curiosity is giving us a "high-five" for another stellar drive!

Today we planned a jam-packed 2 sols of remote and contact science as we continue our journey along the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR). On the first sol, Sol 1870, we'll do a ChemCam observation on the bedrock target "Waboomberg," followed by some Mastcam imaging of nearby VRR features, including exposed rock layers and light-colored bedrock. We'll then use the DRT to brush the surface on target "Platberg," which is followed by MAHLI imaging and an APXS analysis. We'll do additional APXS and MAHLI observations on Waboomberg.

On the second sol, Sol 1871, we'll continue our science observations by using ChemCam and Mastcam multispectral to target Platberg. It's quite common that we use multiple instruments on a single target - this is to corroborate datasets and give us a more complete, thorough analysis. We'll take an additional Mastcam image of "St. Lucia" to look at some interesting bedrock features by Curiosity's wheel. Finally, we've planned a nice suite of ENV activities, which will include DAN, REMS, a Mastcam tau, and a Mastcam line-of-sight extinction image. To wrap up the plan, we'll drive to our next VRR stop, take some standard post-drive images, and set ourselves up for an exciting weekend of science on Mars!

Sols 1872-1875 update by Abigail Fraeman: A Fashionably Late Data Downlink (13 Nov 2017)

Because the alignment of a Mars sol versus an Earth day is constantly changing, we sometimes start our planning day a couple hours earlier or later than normal. Today was one of those days where we were scheduled to start the planning process several hours later than normal. However, our actually start time ended up being even a little later than expected because there was an issue with the downlink, which meant we did not receive any data from Mars until ~45 minutes into the planning process. Because of this delay, we didn't have enough time to do a full assessment of the rover's position in order to determine whether it would be stable and safe to move the arm. Fortunately there was still lots of science to do, so we had no problem filling the plan with remote sensing observations plus a small drive that should get us into an even better position for contact science on Monday.

Since today is Friday, we put together a three sol plan that will take Curiosity through the weekend. On the morning of the first sol, we will have a remote sensing block with Mastcam deck monitoring, an observation of the atmosphere with Mastcam, and ChemCam observations on targets "Fort Brown," "Kirkwood," and "Fairfield." We will also take a Mastcam multispectral observation of what might be our contact science target on Monday, a target called "Frisco." Frisco is a light toned rock that's sitting right below a bunch of darker, grayer rocks. This change in rock texture is visible from orbit, and we are excited to investigate it in detail on the ground. In the afternoon, we will take a Navcam mosaic of the sky and a ChemCam RMI standalone image of a soil target named "Fig Tree," which is part of a test of the focus on the RMI imager.

On the second sol of the plan, sol 1873, we will take Mastcam documentation images of the all of the ChemCam targets, a Mastcam tau observation, a crater rim extinction observation, and a dust devil survey. We'll then go for a very short bump to place the rover in the best possible position to do contact science on the area that transitions from smooth, bright rocks, to dark, broken up rocks.

On the final sol of the plan, we will take a morning tau observation to observe how much dust is in the atmosphere, a morning crater rim extinction observation, and some additional Navcam atmospheric images. We will finally finish up the weekend with an automated ChemCam AEGIS observation.

Sol 1875-1876 update by Christopher Edwards: Sitting on the Boundary (15 Nov 2017)

There was no drive in the plan today, so the science team spent the morning identifying and working out a plan to characterize several high-priority science targets. What makes this day a bit different than other days is that Curiosity is sitting right on the boundary between two geologic units observed from orbit. In the next few days Curiosity will drive over this contact between the lighter-toned, lower unit and the darker-toned, upper unit of the Vera Rubin Ridge. These brightness differences observed from orbit are quite striking and at Curiosity's current position, both of these units were visible and reachable by the arm.

In this plan, Curiosity will conduct contact science on a light-toned block dubbed "Fort Brown" and a dark-toned pebble dubbed "Middleton". These targets will have Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) data acquired of them, illuminating their major element chemistry. Curiosity will carry out these contact science activities all while parked on a very steep slope, approximately ~19˚, which is about as steep as the steepest road on Earth, Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand. In addition to the two contact science targets, Curiosity will measure several similarly appearing targets with the remote sensing ChemCam instrument. In the days to come Curiosity will gain a much better understanding of these darker-toned materials as it continues on its journey up Mt. Sharp.

Sol 1877 - 1878 update by Abigail Fraeman: The Last Drive Before Thanksgiving (15 Nov 2017)

The star of tosol's plan was a drive that will likely be our last drive before the Thanksgiving holiday. The science team has a lot of activities we'd like to do that require Curiosity to stay in a single location for several days, so the Earth days that the ops team has off for Thanksgiving will be a perfect time for the rover to get some really good science done without needing input from the ground. As the surface properties scientist (SPS) on shift today, I worked closely with the rover planners to pick a drive target that had the highest likelihood of leaving the rover in a good, stable position while still giving us an exciting workspace for future contact science. In the end, we decided to try to head for an area where we see two different colors of rocks - the typical tan rocks that have been present throughout our time on the ridge as well as some grayer rocks that appear to be unique to the upper part of the ridge. Although it's hard to tell for certain from afar, I'm hopeful this area will be a great place for Curiosity to sit and do science while we humans on the ground enjoy our turkey dinners!

The sol 1877 plan starts off with a science block that includes a Mastcam multispectral observation of a target further up Mt. Sharp called "Table Mountain." We also have ChemCam LIBS observations of two targets, "Brenton" and "Gamtoos," along with the standard Mastcam documentation imaging. We'll then drive to the aforementioned spot, and finish with some post driving imaging.

Sol 1878 will be a busy sol as well, with a morning remote sensing block that contains a ChemCam AEGIS automatic observation, an RMI mosaic of more distant layers on Mt. Sharp, and some Navcam environmental science activities including a dust devil search, suprahorizon movie, and zenith movie. The day ends with a nice afternoon science block that has an atmospheric dust (tau) measurement and a crater rim extinction movie.

Sols 1879-1881 update by Claire Newman: Stay frosty! (20 Nov 2017)

Today's three-sol plan was all about picking interesting targets to explore at our Thanksgiving stopover point, including setting up for our winter 'frost detection' experiments, and getting SAM ready to do some power-hungry analysis while we stay put.

We're only a few sols from southern winter solstice in Gale Crater on Mars, which means it's pretty much the coldest time of year and the best time for Curiosity to try to see water frost on the surface. If we see frost formation, this provides a lot of information for atmospheric scientists like me, who can use it to test models of when and how much frost should form on different types of surfaces, and to better understand how atmospheric water interacts with the surface and subsurface. The problem is that, even in winter, the temperatures in Gale only just dip below the frost point and then only right before dawn. Also, when we've tried looking in previous years, we seem to have been unlucky: the last time we looked for winter frost, the experiment ran on what turned out to be the warmest night of the week. But this just means we have to stay alert to have a good chance of seeing it.

We started today by picking two targets: a small, smooth-topped sand patch, "Oaktree," which sits in a kind of rock circle toward the upper right edge of this Navcam image just before the darker material begins; and a small rock with an east-facing slope, "Lebombo." The sand should have a lower thermal inertia than rock, which means that it cools down more overnight and may be more likely to form frost. But porous sand can also tend to adsorb water instead of the water freezing on its top. So we also chose a rock target with an east-facing slope so it's in shadow for as much of the afternoon as possible, which means it should be able to cool down a little more than other rocks overnight.

Because we only expect the frost layer at this location to be a few microns thick, and to vanish rapidly when temperatures start going up at dawn, it's very hard to detect with cameras. So we'll be using the ChemCam instrument and its Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) to vaporize the top few microns of the surface at night and look for extra hydrogen in the signal, then compare this to daytime measurements of a similar location on the same target.

We'll be making the daytime hydrogen measurements first, on Sol 1879, then in the next plan we'll include nighttime measurements just before dawn on Sols 1883 and 1886, and keep our fingers crossed for seeing a big increase in the hydrogen signal on at least one of the targets!

As well as the frost preparations, our new location stood out from a distance as having lots of color variety in Mastcam images, and we were able to access both brighter and darker blocks with the arm. So in today's plan we'll also be brushing bright target "Hexriver" to remove the top dust layer with the DRT before ChemCam and APXS are done, but the dark target "Zululand" was too small so no brushing will happen first. Meanwhile, Mastcam will be providing imaging of these targets, as well as documenting more of the light-gray/blue rocks that drew us here (target "Natal") and the contrast between the bright and dark toned units on target "Kansa."

We'll be making our usual REMS, RAD, and DAN measurements of the environment, with some additional cloud and sky movies with Navcam and Mastcam just before sunset on Sol 1880 to get a better idea of the aerosols - dust and water ice - around during the frost experiments. And finally, SAM will be preconditioning overnight, preparing to analyze samples from all the way back at the Bagnold Dunes over Thanksgiving.

Sols 1882 - 1888 update by Ryan Anderson: Stuffed With Science

This week we put together two extra-large helpings of science to get us through the Thanksgiving holiday. The first plan covers sols 1882 through 1886 and much like my plan for after Thanksgiving dinner, will mostly involve sitting in one place and not moving. Instead of a turkey, Curiosity will be cooking a sample of "Ogunquit Beach" in the SAM EGA oven.

Before that happens, we'll use MARDI to look at the ground under the rover to see if anything has moved while we have been sitting at this location. Then, pre-dawn on sol 1883 ChemCam will analyze the rock target "Lebombo" and the soil "Oaktree" to look for evidence of frost. Then, on sol 1885 we have a whole bunch of side dishes in the form of remote sensing. Mastcam will collect multispectral observations of the target "Hexriver" and ChemCam will analyze the targets "Klipfonteinheuwel" and "Klippan." I also advocated for ChemCam to use the RMI to take a closer look at an interesting geologic contact on Mt. Sharp. Mastcam will document all of the ChemCam observations, as well as the ChemCam auto-targeted observation from sol 1878. Mastcam will repeat its clast survey observation from a few days ago to check for any changes, and then APXS will analyze Klippan and Klipfonteinheuwel overnight. Before dawn on sol 1886 ChemCam will once again analyze Lebombo and Oaktree to look for frost and Navcam and Mastcam will take advantage of the early start to make some atmospheric observations.

The second plan for the long weekend covers sols 1886 through 1888. Mastcam will take pictures of the two frost campaign targets, as well as another atmospheric observation. Then ChemCam and Mastcam will take another look at the AEGIS target from sol 1878. This target was given the name "Reivilo" by two of our French colleagues who were on operations today, both named Olivier, who really like the name for some reason. After that, MAHLI will take a closer look at Klipfonteinheuwel and Klippan and APXS will do an overnight calibration measurement.

On sol 1887 Curiosity will finally move on from this spot where we have been camped for a while, collecting some post-drive images to help with targeting next week. Finally, we have an untargeted science block. ChemCam will use AEGIS to automatically pick another target, and we will attempt another one of my observations of Mt. Sharp with the RMI, this time to check for changes on a distant mesa that I have been monitoring. We will wrap up our long weekend with Navcam observations to check for clouds and dust devils, and Mastcam observations to measure the dust in the atmosphere.

We on the Curiosity team are thankful every day that we get to be a part of the exploration of Mars, and next week we'll pick up where we left off as we continue our campaign to explore Vera Rubin Ridge!

Sol 1889-1890 update by Scott Guzewich: Back to the Grind (27 Nov 2017)

While many of us spent the holiday weekend relaxing with friends and family, Curiosity took no rest on Mars and continued working hard today. The Thanksgiving plan included some unusual activities, but today was back to more typical operations with a "touch-and-go" sol planned. On the first sol of the plan, we scheduled contact science with APXS and MAHLI in addition to a ChemCam observation of a rock target termed "Lyttelton" and then Mastcam imaging of a possible impact crater nearby termed "Beit" (the round-looking feature in the middle of this Navcam image). Following that, Curiosity will drive approximately 40 meters toward our next stop of the Vera Rubin Ridge science campaign.

The second sol of the plan will be dedicated to remote-sensing science including a long-distance image with ChemCam of a fan like deposit closer to Mt. Sharp in addition to Navcam movies searching for dust devils and clouds.

Sol 1891 update by Mark Salvatore: Making Do With What You Got! (30 Nov 2017)

Even before we started planning today's activities, we knew there would be a chance that we would be limited on the amount of data returned to Earth following the previous drive. This turned out to be true, as a data relay from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter did not make it down to JPL in time for us to have full Navcam imaging coverage of the area surrounding the rover and in the drive direction. Fortunately, the limited data availability did not significantly influence our capabilities for the day, which is a true testament to the science team, rover planners, and everyone involved in the daily operations!

As the data that are available do not show great bedrock exposures, and because utilizing Curiosity's arm would have likely required all of the data to be downlinked, the science team decided to focus on remote analyses in the immediate vicinity of the rover and then to hit the road for our next stop on Vera Rubin Ridge. The science plan includes long-distance remote imaging with the ChemCam instrument, as well as a Mastcam calibration image and documentation of the automatically selected ChemCam active target executed in the previous plan. Mastcam will also take a multispectral image of the region where Curiosity will be headed over the next few days, in an effort to fully characterize the spectral diversity of this location and to compare with orbital remote sensing data.

Curiosity will then continue her drive to the southeast, headed for a unique patch of terrain that appears interesting in high-resolution orbital data. The hope is to reach this unit on this drive, as that will allow the science team to investigate this interesting region over the duration of the weekend's plan. Because we didn't receive the Navcam data necessary for the rover planners to fully plan the drive, Curiosity will undertake a "guarded drive," where she will autonomously assess the safety of the path ahead and stop the drive if necessary. This is one of those options that is only made available to the mission thanks to the incredible skills of the rover planners and those who developed the mobility software! Following her drive, Curiosity will take her standard sequence of post-drive imaging for targeting, ChemCam will automatically acquire data from a nearby bedrock target, and Mastcam and Navcam will both make environmental and atmospheric observations.

This is only a one-sol plan, as tomorrow is a "soliday" on Mars. So, the science team will pick up planning on Friday, having completed one day's drive and science operations, and hoping for the opportunity for a weekend full of measurements of this interesting region ahead!

LATE BREAKING NEWS: The MRO data ended up arriving just in time to plan a normal drive after all! No need to invoke the "guarded drive" option, although having this capability nearly saved the day!

Sol 1892-94 update by Scott Guzewich: Decisions, decisions (4 Dec 2017)

Planning Curiosity's daily activities involves making decisions that impact not only that current day's plan, but also has ripple effects on plans for the next week or even beyond. We had such a decision to make today as some of the most interesting rocks near our planned stop in the Vera Rubin Ridge science campaign were a short distance away. So, we weighed whether to drive a short distance this weekend and study those rocks next week (delaying our existing plans for next week by several days at least), or be content with the rocks we are parked near and drive onward (stopping just left of the small ridge in the foreground at the upper right of this image) to our next destination on the Vera Rubin Ridge. We chose the latter option after determining that these nearby rock targets are sufficiently similar to those a few short meters away and knowing we'll have future opportunities to study some of these bluish-toned rocks at future stops.

With that decision made, Curiosity will be conducting contact science with APXS and MAHLI on two rocks ("Drakensberg" and "Strubenkop") on the first sol of our 3-sol weekend plan. The contact science will be complemented by ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam images on those same rocks and two additional rock targets ("Pongola" and "Third White Ash"). Fittingly, "Third White Ash" is a bright white rock seemingly embedded in the otherwise gravely surface we are driving over. On the third sol of our plan, ENV has a full day of monitoring the skies over Gale Crater for clouds (it's the cloudy time of year on Mars right now) and dust devils, and Curiosity will drive toward our next stop along the Vera Rubin Ridge.

Sols 1895-1896 update by Mark Salvatore: Dogleg Left (5 Dec 2017)

After spending the weekend analyzing the chemistry of several interesting targets, the science team has planned yet another action-packed science investigation into Curiosity's next two days on Vera Rubin Ridge. In addition, while Curiosity has spent the last several weeks progressing largely to the south, the team has started to command Curiosity to head more towards the east, doglegging left along the nominal Mt. Sharp Ascent Route (MSAR). Over the next few days, the plan is for Curiosity to investigate what appears to be a small eroded impact crater as well as an erosional window into some visually distinct bedrock outcrops.

Before reaching these targets, Curiosity will conduct some additional investigations of the VRR and the local blocky materials. Sol 1895 has a 1.5 hour block of time dedicated to remote observations of the surrounding terrain. Curiosity will begin with some Mastcam color images of two interesting targets in front of the rover: a blocky exposure of fractured bedrock (named "Mapedi") and a nodular piece of bedrock (named "Koonap"). Afterwards, ChemCam will make active LIBS measurements on three bedrock targets (named "Naute," "Mzamba," and "Nauga," located above the shadow of Curiosity's mast in the provided Navcam image) that are different in tone than other dusty materials in front of the rover, followed by a Mastcam documentation image of this target area.

Following these measurements, Curiosity's arm will be unfurled and she will acquire high-resolution MAHLI images of the Mzamba target in addition to an overnight APXS analysis to derive the rock's bulk chemistry. The next day, before heading towards the eroded impact crater, Curiosity will stow her arm in preparation for the ~1 hour drive to the east. Following her drive, Curiosity will undertake the standard post-drive imaging sequence in addition to acquiring a MARDI image to document the terrain immediately under the rover's belly.

Random Fact of the Day: One of today's ChemCam targets is named "Naute," which is the name of a dam in Namibia along a tributary of the Fish River. Namibia's Fish River Canyon is the largest canyon in Africa, and is a widely visited tourist attraction for its scenic views. The Fish River Canyon is also home to an annual ultra marathon (100 km distance) that travels through the difficult terrain along the margins of the river. As of today, Curiosity only has another 82.174 km to traverse before completing her own ultra marathon!

Sol 1897-1898 update by Rachel Kronyak: Welcome to Torridon! (6 Dec 2017)

As indicated by our long wheel tracks in the Navcam image above, our planned ~25-meter drive on Sol 1896 was successful, bringing us to another stop along our route on the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR). We'll actually spend a few days at this stop, where we plan to assess the surrounding bedrock, soil, and what we think might be a small impact crater.

The bedrock around the rover at this stop is quite rubbly, which made choosing targets for APXS and MAHLI measurements slightly more difficult, as it's often hard to place the arm in contact with rough surfaces. Nevertheless, we planned a very busy 2 sols of science activities! We'll spend Sol 1897 using the robotic arm to collect APXS and MAHLI data on 2 bedrock targets (named "Muck" and "Wick") and a soil target named "Sandness." Overnight on Sol 1897, we'll be conducting a SAM preconditioning activity that will set us up to perform an exciting geochrononology experiment over the weekend on our stored "Ogunquit Beach" sand sample.

Sol 1898 is primarily devoted to remote science. First, we'll take some ENV measurements, including a suprahorizon movie, dust devil survey, Mastcam tau, and line-of-sight extinction. Next, we'll analyze the soil target "Sandwick" with ChemCam, along with an automated AEGIS target. To wrap up our observations, we'll take a series of Mastcam mosaics to capture the local geology, including the sand ripple target named "Loch Eil" and the coarse sandy target named "Ballantrae." We'll also take a few images of the terrain ahead to help assess our drive path along the VRR. We'll remain at this location for the weekend as well.

In other exciting news, Curiosity has crossed into a new section of the science team's geologic map. This means we have a new theme for naming targets, which was reflected in today's target names. The new quadrangle is named after Torridon, a village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland that is near the Torridonian Supergroup, a geological formation that contains some of the oldest evidence of life of any rocks in the United Kingdom. We hope that this life-inspired Torridon quadrangle will give us good luck as we explore the ancient (and potentially habitable) environments along our trek up Mount Sharp!

Sol 1899-1901: SAM Evolved Gas Analysis

The plan for this weekend is to finish up the investigation of Vera Rubin Ridge stop #9 and drive toward the next stop. On Sol 1899, Mastcam will acquire multispectral observations of possibly hematite-rich outcrops at "Farr" and the Sol 1897 contact science target "Wick." Both ChemCam and the Right Mastcam will observe "Muck," another Sol 1897 contact science target, and new rock targets named "Gala" and "Lagavulin." Mastcam will also take standard color images of interesting blocks named "Moffat" and "Cape Wrath." Then more of the Ogunquit Beach sample will be dropped into SAM for an overnight evolved gas analysis on Sols 1900 and 1901. The goal is to measure the amounts of various noble gases in the sample in order to determine when the minerals in the sand were formed.

Just before sunrise on Sol 1900, ChemCam will again attempt to detect frost on the "Sandwick" soil target that was observed during the day on Sol 1898. Navcam will search for clouds above the rover just after sunrise, then only REMS measurements and a few engineering activities are planned before the SAM solid sample analysis, which requires a significant amount of power.

The drive is scheduled for Sol 1901, followed by the usual post-drive imaging to enable more contact science in the next plan. Finally, the AEGIS software will be used to autonomously select an outcrop target and observe it with ChemCam.

Sol 1902-1903 update by Michelle Minitti: Swinging by the sandbox (12 Dec 2017)

The majority of the time on the "Vera Rubin Ridge," Curiosity focuses on the rocks that make up the ridge, measuring their chemistry and imaging their structure to try and understand the origin of this prominent feature in Gale crater. Today, however, sand was the focus of Curiosity's attention. Small depressions gather sand as the wind blows along the ridge, and the team wanted to measure the chemistry and grain size of such a Vera Rubin Ridge sand deposit to understand their similarities (or differences) to those of the Bagnold dune sands. MAHLI and APXS were deployed on two targets, "Goatfell" and "Eilean Dubh." The former is along the crest of a sand ripple, and the latter avoids ripple crests to provide the largest contrast to Goatfell. ChemCam will raster across another ripple crest at "Stonehaven," and Mastcam will acquire a multispectral observation at "Corrie" that covers the ripple crests targeted by ChemCam, MAHLI and APXS.

The Vera Rubin Ridge rocks did not go without attention despite the comprehensive sand observations. ChemCam will measure bedrock chemistry at "Arran," and the chemistry of one of the gray cobbles scattered throughout the workspace at "Trotternish." Targets "Coll" and "Yell" mark a contact between two different rock types on the ridge; Mastcam mosaics across these targets will provide detailed insight into the nature of the contact. Mastcam will also image "Hoy," a small, bumpy rock that shares similarities with the target "Moffat" imaged at our last stop. All of the plan's targets will be recorded for posterity in one of our systematic Mastcam 360 degree mosaics, including Curiosity's drive target, a stretch of bedrock ~5 m away with unique color characteristics as viewed from orbit.

Environmental observations include dust measurements at three different times of day, early morning searches for clouds looking above the rover and across the horizon, DAN passive and active measurements spaced throughout the plan, and regular REMS and RAD measurements.

1904-1905 update by Ryan Anderson: Curiosity's Arm Workout (16 Dec 2017)

I was on downlink for ChemCam on Wednesday, so I was busy analyzing the latest data while the uplink team decided what to do for sols 1904 and 1905. We had some nice data, including a gorgeous image of a finely-layered rock named "Trotternish" (shown above).

The sol 1904 plan started with some Mastcam and Navcam atmospheric observations, followed by ChemCam on the targets "Oban", "Talisker", and "Laphroaig". That is followed by a MAHLI "goniometer" observation of Oban. A goniometer measures the amount of light scattered from a surface at different angles, so when we say we have a MAHLI goniometer measurement, it means lots and lots of images of the same target from precisely spaced intervals. It gives Curiosity's arm a workout and delivers a nice data set that can be used for detailed photometry and to create a 3D reconstruction of the target. In addition to the goniometer observation, MAHLI also did normal observations of Oban and Talisker. APXS then did overnight observations on both targets.

On Sol 1905, Mastcam had a documentation image of Talisker, and a full multispectral observation of Oban. Mastcam also had a couple of mosaics of targets "Leadhills" and "Lismore" followed by a MARDI image to document the terrain before we move on.

Sols 1906-1908 by Mark Salvatore: Quick Geologic Transitions!

Only two days ago, Curiosity was exploring a region of the Vera Rubin Ridge that appears more "blue" than its surroundings, and consists of patches of sand and clean bedrock. Curiosity spent several days at this location, trying to understand the diversity within this interesting geologic region, taking pictures, and making geochemical measurements.

After a ~14 meter drive to the east out of this "blue" region, we're in a completely different type of landscape - lots of smaller rocks and bedrock exposures that appear more "red" or "purple" than the previous "blue" terrain. The original plan was to try to brush a rock surface and to perform a suite of geochemical analyses over the weekend, but the lack of large blocks will prohibit our ability to brush a rock clean (see image). Instead, the team is going to use the ChemCam LIBS analyses to both measure the chemistry of two rock targets ("Haddo House" and "Holyrood") as well as blast away surface dust, which will allow for the APXS instrument to have a clear view of "clean" bedrock material for its analyses over the weekend. A third ChemCam target named "Old Man of Storr" is a bright clast that is very different from the other rocks in the scene. Lastly, Mastcam will be used to investigate local color and spectral variability, and to also image the region ahead of the rover to help plan for future traverses.

The team also decided not to drive this weekend, instead giving the team more opportunity to interpret the data acquired over the past few days and leaving the option in place to potentially continue our exploration of this area of the Vera Rubin Ridge before getting too far away. This decision will also prevent Curiosity from using too much power, in case the team decides next week to plan some power-intensive analysis using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

Sols 1909-1910 update by Lauren Edgar: Driving "home" for the holidays (18 Dec 2017)

Today's planning session kicked off with an important decision about where to drive and how that will set us up for exciting science over the holidays. After much discussion, the team decided to return to some familiar yet intriguing rocks that we explored last week, visible in the above Navcam image. These rocks show a lot of color variations and alteration features (as seen in the above Mastcam image), and we're curious how they fit in the overall stratigraphy at Vera Rubin Ridge. The other main event in today's plan is a SAM wet chemistry experiment on the Ogunquit Beach sample. This is a very power hungry activity, so we had to keep our other remote sensing activities in check. The team planned two Mastcam mosaics to document the context of the site we're driving back to, and to investigate similar color variations in an outcrop to the southeast. After a busy night of SAM activities, Curiosity will spend the second sol driving back toward an area named "Lismore." During the drive we'll take a bunch of MARDI images to document the terrain beneath the rover, and then we'll take our typical post-drive Navcam and Mastcam mosaics to prepare for targeting on Wednesday. In the afternoon, Curiosity will acquire two Navcam movies to monitor the atmosphere and search for clouds. I'll be on duty on Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar rocks and preparing for the long holiday plan!

Sols 1911-1912 update by Abigail Fraeman: Filling Up on Pre-Holiday Data Treats (20 Dec 2017)

This morning we found ourselves back on familiar ground, near the targets "Lismore" and "Leadhills" that we imaged back on sol 1905. We drove here to take a closer look at the transition between the blue-gray and red rocks in order to understand the geologic processes that may be responsible for this color change. Since we pulled up right alongside this transition, we were able to plan a monster, 180 frame Mastcam stereo mosaic that will cover the entire area with very high-resolution color information. Downlinking all of these frames from Mars to Earth may take some time, but fortunately we'll have some great opportunities to get big data downlinks during the upcoming holiday. I'm very much looking forward to spending the break unwrapping the data bundles and seeing what's there!

In addition to the awesome mosaic, we will also have some environmental science observations including an atmospheric tau measurement to monitor dust in the atmosphere, a Mastcam crater rim extinction observation, and a dust devil survey. We'll collect ChemCam, Mastcam, APXS, and MAHLI closed cover data from targets named "Ben Loyal" and "Ben More." Because we're coming up on a long holiday plan, we want to be extra careful that the MAHLI dust cover doesn't unintentionally get left open during the long command uploading break, so we're not opening it in today's plan. After all this wraps up, we will drive back towards the target "Laphroaig" that we imaged on sol 1905 to do additional follow-up investigations of some interesting, small scale features.

A final note, we got some terrific news from SAM this morning that their first wet chemistry experiment on Mars ran successfully! Over the last few sols, the SAM team mixed some of the sample we've been carrying around since our investigation at Ogunquit Beach with special chemicals called "derivatization agents" that are designed to make certain molecules easier to detect. I'm looking forward to hearing the results of their experiment once they complete their analyses!

Local area today:

https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=NRB_567057006EDR_F0671714NCAM00269M_&s=1910

Similar area from sol 1905 Mastcam:

https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01905/mcam/1905MR0099970000900125C00_DXXX.jpg

Sols 1913-1924 update by Christopher Edwards: Curiosity's Working Holiday (29 Dec 2017)

There's no real rest for the rover. We planned sols 1921-1924 on December 22 and 29. Earlier, the team had planned a minimal set of activities for the rover to carry out over Sols 1913-1920, letting the science and engineering teams spend a bit of time away from work. However, this doesn't mean Curiosity was sitting idle. There were still plenty of things to do on Mars, including some automated ChemCam AEGIS observations. These activities automatically pick out targets of interest and measure their chemistry at our current parking spot.



On New Year's Eve, the rover started carrying out the four-sol activity plan we completed Dec. 29. This site was so interesting that we backtracked to get to where the rover was parked for this plan. In the workspace in front of the rover, we have some very peculiar targets that warranted some additional interrogation. From orbit, this location has a very interesting appearance, with bluer hues being observed in High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera data onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. On the ground, we are making Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer measurements on two targets, Haroldswick (the dark toned "stick"-like features observed in this Mastcam image from sol 1905) and the Raasay target. We are using these observations to help characterize the interesting compositional variability observed at this location even further. We also planned several ChemCam activities to aid in understanding this ever-evolving compositional story Curiosity is unraveling. In all, while the science and engineering teams took some time off over the holiday season, Curiosity was hard at work on Mars.

Sols 1925-1926 update by Michelle Minitti: Off to the races (3 Jan 2018)

Curiosity's hard work over the holiday break paid off, giving the science team a rich collection of new data to assess and a new workspace to explore. The science team certainly got the year off to a bang with a very full plan at our new parking spot!



The layered rocks in the workspace extend away from the rover like a staircase, and our observations were aimed at "walking" up the staircase to survey similarities and differences in the layers on our journey. We started near the bottom of the workspace, acquiring MAHLI mosaics on layers in the targets "Jura" (the triangular-shaped target immediately in front of the rover) and "Crinan." About halfway up the staircase, we stopped at the target "Assynt" for MAHLI imaging and chemistry measurements with ChemCam and APXS. A few more steps up brought us to the target "Barra," which we analyzed with ChemCam. Finally, at the farthest point where the arm could reach (the upper right edge of the above image) we acquired MAHLI images and ChemCam data from the target "Elgin." We acquired Mastcam multispectral observations, which tell us something about the iron-bearing minerals in the rock, in a continuous swath from Crinan to Elgin, and tracked the layers from in front of us to the right of the rover using a 5x2 Mastcam stereo mosaic.



While mostly busy looking at the rocks in front of us, we paused to take an afternoon glance skyward to look for clouds and dust devils, and measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere. The bountiful workspace meant that we did not drive, so we will remain here to start our weekend plan, allowing the science team to follow up on the observations made today.