Curiosity update: It’s touch-and-go on the climb to Vera Rubin Ridge

Sol 1698-99, May 16, 2017, update by MSL scientist Scott Guzewich: The road to Vera Rubin Ridge, a feature believed to be enriched in the mineral hematite, is getting steeper, so we are stopping frequently to study the composition of the bedrock beneath our wheels. Our intention is to use the APXS and ChemCam instruments to analyze the bedrock for every 5 meters of vertical elevation gain to see how it may change as we climb toward Vera Rubin Ridge. And we are climbing fast on many of our drives now! Today I was the Environmental Science Theme Group Lead as we planned Sols 1698 and 1699. Our first activity was… [More at link]