Sol 1957-58, February 5, 2018, update by MSL scientist Rachel Kronyak: Over the past several months we’ve made excellent progress up and along the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), taking stunning mosaics and using our instrument payload to examine the local geology. Today we planned for Sols 1957-1958, during which we will continue our VRR investigations and drive further along to our next area of interest. Unfortunately, SAM experienced a minor fault over the weekend, so we’ll be delaying those activities – a preconditioning test for an upcoming geochronology experiment – to Wednesday’s (Sol 1959) plan.
We’ll start off Sol 1957 with two ChemCam LIBS observations on the targets “South Harris” and “Drummock.” We got our first taste of Drummock over the weekend with ChemCam and decided to analyze it again to better understand geochemical variations within the rocks around the rover. We’ll take Mastcam images to document these ChemCam targets. We’ll also take a Mastcam mosaic of “Bloodstone Hill,” another target from the weekend plan that warranted further investigation – this area is featured in the black and white RMI image above. Another Mastcam observation… [More at link]