Sol 1194-95, December 14, 2015, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Over the weekend Curiosity drove 42 m closer to “Namib Dune,” and the view is pretty spectacular. We’ve received a lot of beautiful Mastcam and Navcam images, which can be found here.
In today’s 2-sol plan, we’ll continue driving around the “Namib Dune” to get to the lee side. It was a pretty straightforward day for me as GSTL, and Ken as the MAHLI/MARDI PUL. On the first sol Curiosity will acquire ChemCam and Mastcam observations of targets named “Karfenkliff” and “Grillental” to characterize some of the local bedrock and veins. We’ll also take a Mastcam stereo mosaic of “Namib Dune” to better understand the morphology of the ripples and grain flows. [More at link]