Sol 2435, June 13, 2019, update by MSL scientist Susanne Schwenzer: After yesterday’s soliday for the rover operations team on Earth, we went back to work planning activities for Curiosity to complete on sol 2435 in the Glen Torridon area. One feature standing high above the ground in this area are ridges, displaying a mixture of pebbles and sand. Their surface appears to be compacted enough to drive over, but finding a target suitable for our chemistry investigations is a challenge – unless we want soil, of course. It is nevertheless important to understand the chemistry of the pebbles since they do originate from a rock that makes up the stratigraphy of the Gale sediment column. Thus, understanding their composition is as important as understanding outcrops and bigger float rocks.
The team planned a series of investigations of the pebbles and the soil in between. We are also looking into the distance, but more about that later. The investigations at the current parking location are two ChemCam investigations. The target “Little Minch” is a pebble of about 2 to 3 cm size. The ChemCam team managed to fit a five-spot raster on it. Next to the pebble, a second ChemCam investigation targets… [More at link]