Sols 1089-1090: Stimson is Stunning

28 August 2015





Curiosity is currently making her way through some beautiful exposures of the Stimson unit. The 6 m drive on Sol 1087 went well, and Curiosity is in a good position for possible contact science early next week.

Today we’re planning 2-sols for the weekend (Sunday is a “soliday” to allow Earth and Mars schedules to sync back up). One of the main activities on Sol 1089 is dropping off part of the Buckskin drill sample to SAM. Then we’ll dump the Buckskin post-sieve sample, and analyze it with APXS. The plan also includes Mastcam and MAHLI imaging to document the dump pile. Sol 1090 consists of several ChemCam observations of the targets “Fox Hills,” “OBriens Creek,” and “Bearpaw” to investigate the bedrock and local alteration features. We’ll also acquire a large Mastcam mosaic to document the stratigraphy, and a Navcam deck pan for dust monitoring. This region has some particularly stunning views, so I’m looking forward to seeing the new mosaics!

By Lauren Edgar

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