Sols 894-895: “You do have the coolest job in the world”

9 February 2015

The planning day kicked off to a great start, with the SOWG Chair (Aileen Yingst) reminding us that we do have the coolest job in the world. I’m the Geology Theme Lead today, and it certainly feels like an exciting job. In this plan we’ve managed to use almost every instrument onboard the rover to characterize the most recent drill sample and the surrounding environment. First we’ll dump the post-sieve sample, and then we’ll “thwack” and vibrate CHIMRA (the Collection and Handling for in-Situ Martian Rock Analysis) to clean out any remnants of the sample. Later in the plan we’ll use MAHLI and APXS to characterize the grain size and composition of the dump pile, and Mastcam to document the pile with all of the camera filters. We’ll also use ChemCam to assess a nearby vein, and MAHLI will carry out some nighttime imaging of the drill hole and CheMin inlet. We don’t often mention it in our blogs, but every sol we’re also collecting RAD, REMS and DAN data for radiation assessment, environmental monitoring, and neutron detection. Meanwhile the SAM instrument is patiently waiting to analyze the samples that we “doggie bagged” a few sols ago. I like this Front Hazcam image that came down over the weekend – I feel like Curiosity’s shadow is striking a strong pose, having conquered the “Pink Cliffs” outcrop and ready to move on to the next location!

By Lauren Edgar



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