29 December 2014





On December 19th, the MSL tactical team planned 10 sols (!) on Mars, so that everyone could take a nice break over the holidays. That means that today we are assessing all of those sols of data, and checking out all of the “presents” that Curiosity acquired for us! At the start of the break, Curiosity carried out some contact science on the target “Santa Ana,” which is at the base of the Whale Rock outcrop at Pahrump Hills. Curiosity used the Dust Removal Tool (DRT) to expose a clean surface, and we acquired a nice Mastcam image of that surface. This Navcam image shows the arm outstretched over “Santa Ana”, as well as some of the interesting textures in the rocks surrounding it (“Sierra Nevada” is the block to the right of the arm, and “Tecoya” is the long skinny block to the lower right).

Today we are planning 3 sols of targeted science, and 4 sols of REMS and associated background activities to carry us through the New Year’s holiday. The first sol of this plan includes several ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the targets “Santa Ana,” “Peach Springs” and “Lane Mountain” to characterize their texture and composition. The plan also includes a Navcam observation to monitor the atmosphere above Mt. Sharp. Then Curiosity will brush the target “Tecoya” to remove the dust, and use the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to determine its bulk chemical composition. The second sol involves a number of environmental monitoring observations. Curiosity will use the Navcam, Mastcam, and ChemCam passive to assess the composition of the atmosphere and search for dust devils. We will also use Navcam to acquire a sunrise movie, as well as to look for clouds and assess the wind direction near the zenith (the point in the sky directly above the rover). On the same sol we will move the APXS to the target “Sierra Nevada” to see how its composition compares to “Tecoya.” The third sol will be fairly light, and consists of a Mastcam observation of the fresh surface at “Tecoya” using all of the camera filters. The remaining sols (856-859) will consist of standard environmental monitoring, until we resume our regular planning schedule for Sol 860.