Sol 1312: The best laid plans…

14 April 2016

The original plan for today included an ~11 m drive to get closure to a fracture in the Stimson formation. However, during science discussion, the team talked further about how to best sample both altered and unaltered Stimson bedrock, and realized that some of the best places to accomplish the proposed sampling were likely behind us! As a result of this discussion, the drive in today’s plan was pulled at the last minute.

So the modified plan for Sol 1312 includes several ChemCam and Mastcam observations to assess the composition of both altered and unaltered Stimson bedrock, and Mastcam imaging to document the fractures that run through the outcrop. We won’t drive, but we’ll still take images to set us up for contact science and remote sensing in the weekend plan. Talk about late-breaking science!

By Lauren Edgar

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