Sol 1139, October 19, 2015, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Over the weekend Curiosity drilled another hole on Mars at the “Greenhorn” target. Everything went smoothly and we have another beautiful sample to analyze!
Today’s plan is focused on transferring the sample to CheMin, followed by CheMin analysis of the drill sample. I was on duty as GSTL today, and we also planned several ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the drill hole and surrounding rocks. First we’ll acquire a ChemCam passive observation of the drill tailings, and take a number of RMI images of the drill hole to help with ChemCam targeting of the drill hole tomorrow. Then we’ll acquire ChemCam LIBS on the targets “Gypsy,” “Tumbleweed,” and “Wrangle” to assess the variability of silica associated with these fracture zones. We’ll also take a small… [More at link]