Curiosity update: Celebrating Sol 1600 with ‘Whiskey’ and ‘Rye’

Sol 1600-01, February 3, 2017, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Wow, 1600 sols on Mars – that is quite an accomplishment!  And we’re at an exciting point in the traverse as we approach the next segment of the Bagnold Dunes.  Curiosity’s weekend plan includes more contact science and driving as we continue to investigate the Murray formation and prepare for observations at the active sand dunes.  This Saturday is a soliday (a day without planning to allow Earth and Mars schedules to sync back up), so we’ll transition from a late slide sol today to early slide sols next week.  The plan begins with additional imaging of “Ireson Hill” to document the bedding geometry and cap rock from a different viewing position.  We’ll also take a Mastcam tau, a Navcam dust devil movie, and a Mastcam image to monitor the rover deck.  Then Curiosity will acquire MAHLI images of two targets: “Whiskey” and “Rye” (hmmm, perhaps some… [More at link]