Curiosity update: Down the ridge she comes

Sols 2036-37, April 27, 2018, update by MSL scientist Michelle Minitti: Curiosity continues to pick her way downhill off the “Vera Rubin Ridge” and onto the Murray formation rocks below. This weekend’s plan only covers two sols, to give Earth planning time and Mars time a chance to realign so that the science team is not up in the middle of the night commanding the rover. The two sols, however, are still chock full of activities. The rover is positioned on a rock-strewn sandy slope, and the science team thought the scattered rocks of the workspace would be better interrogated with Mastcam and ChemCam than MAHLI and APXS. ChemCam targeted “Virginia,” a tan bedrock slab with small nodules, “Shannon Lake,” a red bedrock slab, and “Eveleth,” a block with distinctive layers. One of the advantages of driving backward is that rocks the rover has driven over end up in view of the remote sensing instruments. Mastcam acquired multispectral data from a rock broken by the rover wheels, the target “Britt,” and an expanse of crossbedded ! outcrop, “Aurora,” to the left of the rover. Mastcam… [More at link]