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Leaning Back, Driving Back - Curiosity Rover Blog for Sols 4309–4310

Earth planning date: Wednesday, September 18, 2024

The lengthy drive planned on Monday executed as expected, and we came in today to find our rover parked at a jaunty angle on a sloped ridge. There were some worries that the slope might limit our ability to use the arm for contact science in this plan (we don't want to do anything that might cause the rover to slide down the slope!), but after some careful consideration, we received the good news that all six of our wheels are holding on firmly to the ground, so there was no risk of slipping.

On Monday, two different options for today's plan were laid out. The first option, a "full contact science" plan where we don't drive, was to be executed if Monday's drive put us exactly where we hoped. The second, a "touch-and-go" plan where we do some light contact science before driving away, was to be executed if the drive didn't put us where we wanted to be. As it happened, the rover was a little too enthusiastic about driving, and actually put our desired workspace under its body rather than in front where the arm could reach it. There's always a little uncertainty in the final position after such a long drive! So, we decided to stick with a touch-and-go plan that includes a tiny backwards drive of less than a metre to reposition our desired target in front of the rover.

Although we need to re-position, we aren't slowing down on science for even a second. We are parked in front of a large fractured slab of bedrock, which can be seen in the above image. This slab became the contact science target for this plan with DRT and APXS activities on "The Minster." Mastcam is getting a workout today as well, with large mosaics of "North Channel," "Buckeye Ridge," "Quinn," and "Island Pass." These mosaics are all documenting various aspects of the ridge we're sat on and the edge of the Gediz Vallis Channel, including sedimentary rocks, white sulphate materials, and gravels and fine-grained materials. ChemCam is also taking a turn on the bedrock slab with a LIBS activity on "Grand Sentinel" and a mosaic of some exposed white stones off in the distance.

The second sol of the plan, after our short drive, is largely taken over by environmental science activities, though there is our usual post-drive ChemCam AEGIS. These activities include a Mastcam tau and Navcam line-of-sight to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere around and above us, as well as a dust devil movie, suprahorizon cloud movie, and some Navcam deck monitoring to see if our driving or the wind is moving around any of the sand and dust on the rover deck. The team is also taking the usual set of REMS, RAD, and DAN observations.

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Source for this blog and the archive of all blogs (with all the links and the original raw images etc): https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4309-4310-leaning-back-driving-back/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

De-Bayered L-MastCam mosaic - Assembled in MS-ICE

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, during September 17, 2024 (Sol 4307). The camera focus motor count (returned with the image) can be used to calculate the camera standoff distance (camera lens to the target). In this case the standoff was close to 25 centimeters (~10 inches). This provides an image scale of ~95 micrometers per image pixel, or a scene width of ~15 centimeters (~6 inches). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Awaiting drive data and the location. While we're waiting for those details, I have assembled a selection of the post drive L-NavCam images into a small mosaic, clearly showing the low ridge in front of the rover that was discussed in the last mission update.

Bright Rocks Catch Our Eyes - Curiosity Rover Blog for Sols 4307-4308

Earth planning date: Monday, September 16, 2024

We made good progress through Gediz Vallis in the weekend drive, landing in a segment of the channel containing a mix of loose rubble and other channel-filling debris. Amongst the jumbled scene, though, particular objects of interest caught our eye: bright rocks. In past workspaces in Gediz Vallis, similar bright rocks have been associated with very high to almost pure sulfur contents. As all good geologists know, however, color is not diagnostic, so we cannot assume these are the same as sulfur-rich rocks we have encountered previously. The only way to know is to collect data, and that was a significant focus of today’s plan.

We planned multiple mosaics across the examples of bright rocks visible in the image above. Mastcam and ChemCam RMI will cover “Bright Dot Lake” and “Sheep Creek” both in the right midfield of the image. Mastcam imaged the example in the bottom right corner of the image at "Marble Falls,” and ChemCam LIBS targeted one of the small bright fragments along the bottom of the image at "Blanc Lake.” There was also a small bit of bright material in the workspace, but unfortunately, it was not reachable by APXS. APXS analyzed a spot near the bright material, at target “Frog Lake,” and MAHLI was able to tack on a few extra images around that target that should capture the bright material. MAHLI also imaged a vuggy target in the workspace at “Grasshopper Flat.” The wider context of the channel was also of interest for imaging, so we captured the full expanse of the channel with one Mastcam mosaic, and focused another on mounds distributed through the channel at target "Copper Creek."

Even with all this rock imaging, we did not miss a beat with our environmental monitoring. We planned regular RAD, REMS, and DAN measurements, mid and late day atmospheric dust observations, a cloud movie, and dust devil imaging.

Our drive is planned to take us up onto one of the ridges in the channel. Will we find more bright rocks there? Or something new and unexpected that was delivered down Gediz Vallis by some past Martian flood or debris flow? Only the channel knows!

Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework

Source for this blog and the archive of all blogs (with all the links and the original raw images etc): https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4307-4308-bright-rocks-catch-our-eyes/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The reasons for the drive on sol 4306 are detailed in this mission update https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4304-4006-12-years-42-drill-holes-and-now-1-million-chemcam-shots/

This data is updated and released by JPL via it's JSON URL's after each drive.

I import the JSON data into this table to make it easier to digest

If anyone wants to check the JSON, you can find it on this URL. https://mars.nasa.gov/mmgis-maps/MSL/Layers/json/MSL_waypoints.json

This drive was downslope to site 108.2792. The new site is 4.31 meters (14.14 ft) lower than the previous site 108.2528. The rover is pointing towards the Southwest (228.34°) The end-of-drive image is from the rover left-side navigation camera. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance Mars rover is on its ascent to the rim of Jezero Crater, and it captured a portion of the journey with one of its navigation cameras. Forty-five frames were stitched together to create this video showing the rover's progress on Aug. 22, 25, and 26, 2024, the 1,247th, 1,250th, and 1251st Martian days, or sols, of the mission. During the time period captured, Perseverance covered a distance of about 530 feet (160 meters) and gained about 115 feet (35 meters) in elevation.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/PIA26376

Dox Castle will be our first chance to do rim science, to search for evidence of the transition between the margin and rim materials, and to start piecing together the stratigraphic history of the rocks that make up the rim of Jezero crater.