Sol 1964, February 13, 2018, update by MSL scientist Mark Salvatore: Like yesterday, today’s plan is a bit on the thin side, as the rover’s power allotment will be primarily dedicated to activities associated with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and its preparation for a planned power-hungry experiment in tomorrow’s plan. As a result, Curiosity only has about 50 minutes to make observations and measurements of the surrounding workspace, but the team did a great job in packing it full of great observations!
We will first use Mastcam’s multispectral imaging capabilities to image yesterday’s brushed and analyzed target named “Newmachar,” followed by a calibration image, and then two additional multispectral observations of two vein targets named “St. Kilda” and “Benbecula.” Mastcam will then perform some additional stereo imaging to assess the workspace and to acquire enough data for the rover engineers to determine whether this area is safe for our first use of the drill since the Fall of 2016! Following these engineer-requested Mastcam mosaics, we will also use the ChemCam RMI high-resolution camera to investigate some interesting targets in our workspace… [More at link]