Curiosity update: Investigating Sutton Island

Sol 1523-24, November 16, 2016, update by USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: On Sol 1521 Curiosity drove 11 m to the east, which set us up to investigate a darker-toned outcrop known as “Sutton Island,” seen in the middle of the above Mastcam image.  Today’s plan is focused on contact science to study the grain size, stratification, and chemistry of the “Sutton Island” outcrop.  I was the GSTL today, and it was a busy day of planning!  It took a while to find contact science targets that we could safely reach with the DRT, MAHLI and APXS.  Eventually we found targets that would work, and we planned MAHLI and APXS on two distinct parts of the outcrop, including a DRT location on the top of the outcrop to analyze a clean brushed surface.  We were also able to plan a MAHLI “dogs eye” mosaic to investigate the… [More at link]