Curiosity update: Brushfest

Sol 1818-19, September 16, 2017, update by MSL scientist Ken Herkenhoff: We are planning only 2 sols today because there will be a soliday on Sunday to get us back in sync with “Mars time” in Gale Crater. The focus of science planning this morning was on observations of the current workspace, including an experiment to acquire APXS and MAHLI data on a bedrock target before and after brushing. MAHLI images of three potential DRT targets were received and used to determine which of these small exposures could be brushed. One had small pebbles in the DRT ellipse, so could not be brushed, but both of the other targets (“Christmas Cove” and “Mitten Ledge”) are brushable. So the APXS will measure the chemistry of Christmas Cove before it is brushed off, then will be… [More at link]