Curiosity update: Another touch and go

Sol 1577, January 11, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: MSL drove almost 30 meters on Sol 1576, stopping in a location with a nice exposure of bedrock in the arm workspace.  MAHLI’s optics look clean, so we planned a full suite of MAHLI images and a short APXS integration on a bedrock target named “Mansell Mountain.”  Fitting the remote sensing observations we wanted, along with the contact science and a ~46-meter drive, into the Sol 1577 plan was a challenge.  But the tactical team did a great job, working together to put together an excellent plan.  After the contact science is completed… [More at link]