Curiosity Mars Rover: Next Drill Campaign

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2380 duties.

The science staff has been targeted on figuring out which goal within the neighborhood of “Aberlady” will develop into the main focus of the subsequent drill marketing campaign, experiences Brittney Cooper, an atmospheric scientist at York College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Goal three

“In the long run, goal three was really useful by rover planners for its flatter texture,” Cooper provides, as an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) raster of different targets confirmed there wasn’t a big distinction in composition between the 2.

“As soon as formally included in plan actions, goal three will likely be given a correct title in step with these getting used within the ‘Glen Torridon’ area,” Cooper notes.

Dump pile

The rover not too long ago took a Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) open cowl picture of the Aberlady pattern dump pile after which an arm retract to get it out of the best way for a Mastcam multispectral commentary of the dump pile that was to observe.

“Subsequent, a Navcam mud satan survey and suprahorizon film are included to observe clouds and dirt devils within the present transition from dusty to cloudy season,” Cooper explains.

Science block

Then a Chemistry and  Digital camera (ChemCam) 10×1 vertical Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Distant Micro-Imager (RMI) commentary on the Aberlady drill tailings and a Mastcam documentation picture, Cooper says, will wrap up a one-hour science block.

“After sundown, two APXS rasters on two otherwise toned drill tailing targets are deliberate to run till the wee hours of the evening,” Cooper experiences, when Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) will take over with its third integration on the Aberlady drill pattern, “utilizing X-ray diffraction to determine the alerts of the minerals current within the pattern.”

Bump forward

Lastly, normal Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) passives and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) observations have been included to proceed monitoring the environmental circumstances on the present workspace.

For Curiosity, Cooper concludes, the objective is to complete up at Aberlady, and bump to focus on three for “Drill Sol zero.”