Sol 1534: Preparing to drill

28 November 2016

Curiosity had a productive Thanksgiving weekend and now we are getting ready to drill at “Precipice.” Sol 1534 begins with MAHLI imaging of the post-sieve dump pile from the previous drill sample (“Sebina”). Then we have a short science block to acquire a ChemCam passive observation and a Mastcam multispectral observation of the dump pile. In the afternoon the plan includes a CHIMRA “thwack” activity to clean out any remnants of the previous sample in order to prepare for a new one. Later in the afternoon we’ll also take a ChemCam long distance RMI mosaic to investigate a linear feature observed from HiRISE. The full drill hole is planned for Sol 1536.

By Lauren Edgar

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