Curiosity update: ‘Change in plans’

Sol 1218-20, January 8, 2016, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: We came in this morning curious to see how the Sol 1217 bump and scuff went, but unfortunately there was an anomaly that prevented any use of motors during the plan.  No motors meant no drive and no scuff, and most of our planned activities did not occur.  So today turned into a recovery day – first trying to assess what happened and why it happened, and then figuring out how to proceed.  Thanks to some impressive work by the science and engineering teams, we developed a plan that allows for recovery on Sol 1218, followed by some opportunistic science on Sols 1219-1220.  I was the GSTL today, and we had a fun but challenging day trying to figure out how to do good science without moving the rover or the mast. [More at link]