Tag Archives: Precipice

Bagnold Dunes sand movement observed by Curiosity

[Editor’s note: From a paper by Mariah Baker and nine co-authors recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.] The Bagnold Dunes in Southern Summer: Active Sediment Transport on Mars Observed by the Curiosity Rover •  Curiosity’s imaging campaigns in the Bagnold … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Drill brake issue, ChemCam, REMS, and the terrain ahead

[Editor note: Blog post by Emily Lakdawalla, the Planetary Society] Since my last update, the Curiosity mission has developed a better understanding of the problem that prevented them from drilling at Precipice, but its intermittent nature has slowed the development … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: New diagnostics

Sol 1572-74, January 6, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: MSL drove nearly 17 meters on Sol 1571, to a location with bedrock outcrops in the arm workspace. So the weekend plan includes lots of arm work as well … Continue reading

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Curiosity: Oak Hill butte

Sol 1548, December 13, 2016. With Curiosity parked at Precipice while the drill undergoes more diagnosis and testing, the Mastcam, using its 100mm telephoto lens, snapped a picture of a small butte named Oak Hill. This feature lies about 1 … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Still at Precipice

Sol 1548-49, December 12, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: Unfortunately, one of the drill diagnostics early in the plan indicated a problem, which prevented most of the other activities for the weekend (including the arm motion and drive) from … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Moving again!

Sol 1545-47, December 9, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: This morning we received downlink that indicated operation of the drill feed using standard commands.  This is great news, and the anomaly response team has cleared the rover for … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Targeted remote sensing

Sol 1538-40, December 2, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: The R[over] P[ilot]s are going to take a little more time to diagnose the drill fault before we drive or use the arm again, so today’s plan is focused … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Drilling Precipice

Sol 1536, November 30, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The The cross-contamination experiment and cleaning of CHIMRA went well, so we are ready to drill into the Precipice target!  Past drilling activities have made use of both rotation … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Preparing to drill

Sol 1534, November 28, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: Curiosity had a productive Thanksgiving weekend and now we are getting ready to drill at “Precipice.”  Sol 1534 begins with MAHLI imaging of the post-sieve dump pile from the … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Thanksgiving at Precipice

Sol 1531-33, November 23, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: Today’s plan covers sols 1531-1533, which will take us through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We are in place at our next drill location “Precipice” so there will be no … Continue reading

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