Sol 1852, October 20, 2017, update by MSL scientist Ken Herkenhoff: MSL drove over 20 meters on Sol 1850, to an area with lots of bedrock exposed. We had several nice targets to choose from, but were limited in what we could plan because we want to prepare for a SAM evolved gas analysis (EGA) of sand from “Ogunquit Beach,” which requires significant power. We are planning only 2 sols today, to get synced back up with “Mars time” on Monday, so will not be driving this weekend.
Despite the power constraints, we were able to plan a lot of activities today. Sol 1852 will start with Navcam searches for clouds and dust devils, followed by Mastcam mosaics of the expected path ahead (southward). Then ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe bedrock target “Balfour” and a block named “Ripon.” Late that afternoon, MAHLI will acquire a full suite of images of Balfour before APXS is placed on it for an overnight integration. We considered brushing Balfour… [More at link]