Curiosity update: Drilling Marimba

Sol 1420, August 3, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The Sol 1419 activities completed successfully, including cleaning the remaining Oudam sample out of CHIMRA.  So the focus of the Sol 1420 plan is drilling into the Marimba bedrock target.  But first, MAHLI will image the “noseprint” of the APXS contact sensor in the Oudam dump pile and the drill target from various distances.  After the drilling has completed, the drill bit and the new drill hole will be imaged by many of the MSL cameras.  And once again, we were able to fit some additional Mastcam observations into the plan:  Measurements of dust in the atmosphere, a stereo mosaic extending coverage of the arm workspace, images of targets “Cota 1″ and “Cota 2″ to serve as a baseline for detecting changes in… [More at link]