Curiosity update: ‘Taking the high road’

Sol 991, May 20, 2015, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: After assessing a few different drive paths to deal with the challenging terrain, the team decided to drive uphill to avoid crossing the ripples near Jocko Butte.  On Sol 990, Curiosity drove 52 m back towards Mt. Shields, which puts our total odometry at 10,556 m. The goal of today’s plan is to climb uphill towards an interesting geologic contact. It’s the same contact that we would have seen in Logan Pass, but the path through “Marias Pass” looks a little bit shorter.  Today’s plan also includes ChemCam and Mastcam observations of… [More at link]