Curiosity update: So much to do before the holiday

NLB_614101983EDR_F0760988CCAM01440M_-br2Sols 2441-42, June 19, 2019, update by MSL engineer Ashley Stroupe: Curiosity is still parked on Teal Ridge and is in the midst of an extended contact science campaign. This ridge location, shown in the attached image over Curiosity’s shoulder, is exciting because it shows crossbedding in a bedrock layer, as well as a contact between the bedrock outcrop and a rubbly layer below. We hoped to use the DRT to remove dust, but we still didn’t have Mastcam workspace imaging to support DRT use on the bedrock. Happily, we were able to reach some of the rubbly material that we previously thought we’d have to bump to. We picked two contact science targets – “Urr” (rubbly) and “Calgary Bay” (cap unit of the ridge); we planned MAHLI and APXS on both.

In addition to contact science, we’re doing remote sensing with ChemCam and Mastcam on Calgary Bay and another cap unit target called “Irvine.” There is also a lot of ENV imaging in the plan, including change detection (which will continue into the next plan) on Sandyhills. Also part of our ENV campaign, we included a coordinated suite of observations including a SAM methane experiment, ChemCam sky imaging, Mastcam tau, crater rim extinction, and a Navcam dust devil survey… [More at link]

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