Sols 3936-3939: Double the Fun

Sols 3936-3939: Double the Fun
by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 11, 2023

Earth planning date: Friday, September 1, 2023: Most long weekend plans are packed with lots of fun science, and this weekend's plan - to get us through the US Labor Day holiday - was no exception. But the way this one was packed had an unusual pattern to it - many of our activities came in pairs! The rarest pair was two separate uses of the DRT - it has been more than 200 sols since we last had such luck.

The soon-to-be-much-cleaner block is the brightly-illuminated one near the center of the workspace. One DRT will cover the fractured texture near the bottom of the block (on the target "Areopoli"), and the second will cover the lumpy texture near the top of the block (on the target "Artemisio"). This duo is covered by paired MAHLI and APXS analyses, and one of the pairs of Mastcam multispectral observations.

The second Mastcam multispectral observation is on a part of the "Zagori" dune field that hugs the base of the rise we are driving along. Mastcam's other activity pairs include two large mosaics that together capture kilometers of terrain east of us, two atmospheric dust observations, and two activities that monitor the state of the rover. ChemCam long distance RMI mosaics came in twos - one aimed nearly 40 kilometers away at the Gale crater rim, and the other aimed to continue our documentation of the amazing layers of the "Kukenan" butte. The second and third sols of the plan have a pair of ChemCam LIBS rasters.

One target "Kissamos," crosses some of the beautiful layers present in the workspace, and the second, "Amphipolis," focuses on a gray block that wandered down from the Gediz Vallis Ridge. The first sol of the plan also has a pair of ChemCam activities, but they are more fraternal twins rather than identical ones. ChemCam will target Areopoli for a LIBS raster (even more information from this target!), and then will turn its gaze to sky for passive sky observation. Navcam gets pairs of sky-gazing activities across the plan, with two cloud movies and two dust devil monitoring activities.

There are, of course, many one-hit wonders in the plan (like a MARDI twilight image), and other activities too good to do just twice (REMS, RAD, and DAN). But as we roll into the weekend, let's celebrate the dynamic duos of the plan!

Sol 3940: Lemonade From Lemons!
by Lucy Thompson | Planetary Geologist - UNB
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 05 - Earth planning date: Tuesday, September 5, 2023: The team knew coming into planning today that there would be a discussion about which activities should take the highest priority. There is an unusually early decisional downlink pass that also has only a low data volume. This meant that we would need to discuss how to fit in arm contact science, targeted science and a drive before that pass. However, we did not really have to make the difficult choice after all.

While the weekend drive executed perfectly through this tricky terrain of sand and large blocks, Curiosity ended up with one wheel perched on a rock. The rover engineers determined that if the rover slipped off the rock, the drop would be ~13 cm. This is too large a drop risk to safely unstow the arm and do contact science (our first lemon). Our second lemon that we had to contend with was that the imaging acquired in our drive direction only allows a short, ~20 m drive. However, the science team is always at the ready to make lemonade from lemons and jumped at the chance to increase the number of targeted science observations.

We continue to acquire imaging of the Gediz Vallis ridge in order to help us understand how this relatively late feature within Gale crater formed. The abundant large blocks contained within the ridge deposits indicate a relatively high energy environment, e.g., a landslide, a flooding event or maybe glacial activity. How do the included blocks relate to other rocks already encountered within Gale crater, and to the exposed stratigraphy higher up Mount Sharp?

Are there separate packages or layers of sediment within the ridge that might represent different depositional events and processes? Are there noticeable changes in the ridge as we drive from north to south? What is the nature of the contact with the sufate-bearing unit? A large Mastcam mosaic will be acquired in this plan to help us continue to address these questions. To continue looking at the layering and structure within the Kukenan butte, and to aid in determining how the stratigraphy fits with what we are driving over, ChemCam will take a long distance RMI mosaic of the butte.

Of course, we are also interested in documenting what is in the immediate vicinity of the rover. ChemCam will fire its laser at an elongate resistant feature ("Olympia") within an exposed bedrock block to determine whether there is interesting chemistry associated with it. We analyzed some resistant, nodular-looking bedrock in the weekend plan with APXS ("Artemisio"). How will the two features compare compositionally and texturally? We will acquire a Mastcam documentation image of the Olympia feature and a mosaic of the immediately surrounding area.

Mastcam will also image some nearby resistant fins, "Palaeochori." Even with the two large imaging mosaics, the environmental team were also able to squeeze just a little more juice from those lemons to add in a Navcam dust devil movie before we drive away. After the drive MARDI will image the new terrain beneath the rover. Standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities round out this plan.