Sol 1863, November 1, 2017, update by MSL scientist Roger Wiens: Curiosity will finally be back on the move. The rover made an unexpected stop of nearly two weeks in the current location due to several things ranging from failed uplinks to insufficient arm heating and a camera glitch. It reminds us that everything must work just right to successfully operate a robot on Mars. In addition to thorough remote and contact analyses of this stop, Curiosity had several other notable accomplishments, including placing the drill down on the ground for a test, and dropping off a sample of “Ogunquit Beach” dune soil to SAM for evolved gas analysis.
The rover team is planning two sols of operation. Curiosity has a ~25 meter drive planned for Thursday, hoping to stop between the two sandy areas shown to the left and right in the image. Before the drive it is doing ChemCam observations on “Gravelotte,” “Sibasa,” and “Brooklands.” APXS will have an… [More at link]