Curiosity Mars Rover – Weekend Plan into Labor Day

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2874 duties.

The phrase is that there’s been no pattern drop-off to the rover’s Pattern Evaluation at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite.

Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Middle in Flagstaff, Arizona studies that the science crew anticipated the weekend plan to incorporate drop-off of a few of the drill pattern to the SAM instrument. However it was later acknowledged that the detailed necessities for the dropoff and SAM evaluation couldn’t be met in a latest plan.

“So the arm and SAM actions needed to be faraway from the plan, releasing up energy for different observations,” Herkenhoff provides. The robotic shall be busy gathering necessary information over the upcoming vacation weekend.

A trio of Sols

Planning is now not restricted, so Saturday is a “soliday” and the rover crew is planning three sols of actions (Sols 2874-2876) to get the rover by means of Labor Day.

On Sol 2874, Curiosity’s Chemistry and Digicam (ChemCam) will measure the chemistry of the ambiance above Gale Crater by trying upward and buying spectra. Then ChemCam will hearth its laser on the wall of the “Mary Anning three” drill gap and at a soil goal named “Insh Marshes.”

After the Proper Mastcam takes footage of the ChemCam targets, Mastcam will purchase a stereo mosaic to increase the protection of the world in entrance of the rover.

Navcam will then seek for mud devils and, later that night, take photos of the sky for calibration.

Equally, simply after sundown, the ChemCam Distant Micro Imager (RMI) will take photos of the sky above the rover to examine the digital camera’s calibration, Herkenhoff notes.

Room for different actions

The second sol (2875) was initially crammed with arm and SAM actions, and after they had been faraway from the plan there was room for different actions, so added was an extended Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) passive commentary and a few engineering checks to associate with the standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) atmospheric measurements.

Herkenhoff continues by stating that on Sol 2876, Mastcam will search for adjustments within the sandy “Higher Ollach” space and take some footage of the rover deck to search for adjustments there as properly.

Then ChemCam will analyze the chemistry of rock targets “Njuggleswater” and “Rocabarrigh” and the Proper Mastcam will picture them as properly. “Don’t ask me learn how to pronounce these names,” Herkenhoff says.

Lastly, in the course of the morning of 2877, Navcam will seek for clouds and Mastcam will measure the opacity of mud within the ambiance, Herkenhoff concludes.