Curiosity Roundup Sols 3725-3731

Curiosity Roundup Sols 3725-3731
by Lucy Thompson | Planetary Geologist - UNB
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 03, 2023

The drive in our last plan took us to an area that appeared somewhat smoother and brighter from orbit (as well as from drive direction imaging) on the so-called "Marker band" that we have been investigating. The Marker band was identified as of interest prior to Curiosity landing within Gale crater owing to its distinct texture and appearance from orbit within the layers of rock that make up Mount Sharp. What does this interesting feature represent? Might it be a layer of volcanic ash? How does its chemistry, mineralogy, texture and colour differ from the surrounding Mount Sharp rock layers?

These are all questions we are trying to address as we continue to traverse the Marker band, which is why we drove to our current workspace. However, when we looked at the images this morning, it was clear that our parking spot was far from smooth, at least on the cm-scale, and the brightness can probably be attributed to the ubiquitous dust and soil present (see the image associated with this blog). Our workspace was sprinkled with small (1-3 cm size), resistant pebbles that may or may not be attached to underlying rock, which is obscured by the dust and soil that has collected between the pebbles.

Our plan was to get "contact" science of the rock in this workspace, but because of the size and nature of the pebbles, it was not safe to place the APXS in contact with what the rover engineers referred to as, "APXS-killers!" The pebbles were the perfect size and spacing that they could have poked up into the APXS instrument, so we chose instead to hover over the pebbles (the target, "Alasca") with APXS to determine their composition.

We will also take close-up MAHLI images of "Alasca," as well as of an interesting trough-like feature ("Alegria"). As the APXS strategic planner today, I chose the target and liaised with the rover engineers to make sure that our instrument will be safely deployed. To further characterize this workspace, ChemCam will fire the laser at the resistant pebble "Viudita" to determine composition, and we will acquire an accompanying Mastcam documentation image.

Further afield, we planned imaging of the terrain around and ahead of us with both Mastcam and ChemCam RMI. These images include continued characterization of the grey float rocks that are scattered on the surface; documenting the stratigraphy in the direction that we plan to drive in; looking for more examples of the rhythmic layering that we saw exposed within the Marker band when we first investigated it; and imaging apparent changes in the surface texture of the Marker band.

After executing all our targeted science, we plan to drive away, ~12 m to the SSW, to put some of the grey float rocks in our workspace for the weekend. Once the drive has completed, there is lots of untargeted science still to be done. A MARDI image will document the terrain below us, and an untargeted ChemCam AEGIS activity will give us a glimpse of the composition of our new workspace.

The rest of the untargeted science will predominantly comprise observations (Mastcam and Navcam) to monitor the atmosphere and sky, including Mastcam imaging of Phobos, Mastcam twilight imaging and a Navcam twilight movie. Standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities round out this plan.

Sols 3278-3279: Making the Most of Limited Data
by Ken Herkenhoff | Planetary Geologist - USGS Astrogeology
The Sol 3727 drive went well, positioning the rover at the transition in the Marker Band that was the goal of the drive. As expected, we did not receive enough image data to allow DRT brushing to be planned, but we were able to plan APXS and MAHLI observations of a rough bedrock target named "Primavera."

The lack of complete, full-resolution Navcam coverage made it more challenging than usual to select and accurately point at targets of interest. I focused on planning long-distance RMI observations, and despite the limited data we were able to plan an RMI mosaic of a distant block with interesting textures exposed.

We also planned a LIBS raster on a nearby nodular rock named "Shulinab." Mastcam will take an image of Shulinab for context and acquire stereo mosaics of a dark linear feature, the planned drive direction, and some stones that don't appear to be derived from the local bedrock. The Left Mastcam will also acquire a 7x6 mosaic of textures near the rover.

After all these activities have completed, the rover will drive about 26 meters to a brighter patch of ground, unstow its arm and take images of the arm workspace in preparation for contact science planning on Wednesday. Mastcam will once again measure the amount of dust in the air above the rover by imaging the Sun, then will search for ice clouds and take an image of Mars' larger moon Phobos after sunset.

On Sol 3729 Navcam will search of dust devils and ChemCam will autonomously search for and shoot its laser at an outcrop target. That evening, Navcam will search for clouds during twilight. As usual, REMS and DAN activities are spread throughout the plan.

Sols 3725-3727: To Be a Meteorite or Not To Be a Meteorite - That Is the Question!
by Ashley Stroupe | Mission Ops Engineer - JPL
The drive in our last plan took us to an area that appeared somewhat smoother and brighter from orbit (as well as from drive direction imaging) on the so-called "Marker band" that we have been investigating. The Marker band was identified as of interest prior to Curiosity landing within Gale crater owing to its distinct texture and appearance from orbit within the layers of rock that make up Mount Sharp. What does this interesting feature represent? Might it be a layer of volcanic ash? How does its chemistry, mineralogy, texture and colour differ from the surrounding Mount Sharp rock layers?

These are all questions we are trying to address as we continue to traverse the Marker band, which is why we drove to our current workspace. However, when we looked at the images this morning, it was clear that our parking spot was far from smooth, at least on the cm-scale, and the brightness can probably be attributed to the ubiquitous dust and soil present (see the image associated with this blog report). Our workspace was sprinkled with small (1-3 cm size), resistant pebbles that may or may not be attached to underlying rock, which is obscured by the dust and soil that has collected between the pebbles.

The pebbles were the perfect size and spacing that they could have poked up into the APXS instrument, so we chose instead to hover over the pebbles (the target, "Alasca") with APXS to determine their composition.

A MARDI image will document the terrain below us, and an untargeted ChemCam AEGIS activity will give us a glimpse of the composition of our new workspace. The rest of the untargeted science will predominantly comprise observations (Mastcam and Navcam) to monitor the atmosphere and sky, including Mastcam imaging of Phobos, Mastcam twilight imaging and a Navcam twilight movie. Standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities round out this plan.