Curiosity update: ‘More sand traps’

Sol 983, May 11, 2015, update from USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The Sol 981 drive got the rover around the troublesome ripples and to the desired location, which gave us a good view of the terrain ahead.  Unfortunately, the images taken from the new location show more sandy ripples between the rover and the sharp transition between bright and dark rocks that we would would like to examine close up.  So the plan for Sol 983 is to go around the ripples to the right and search for a safe path ahead.  But first, ChemCam will test its new focusing software, using the RMI to find the best focus position for LIBS analyses of the onboard calibration targets.  [More at link]