Curiosity update: Rover in a candy store

Sols 2015-17, April 6, 2018, update by MSL scientist Michelle Minitti: Like Harry Potter in Honeydukes or Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, Curiosity rolled up to the proverbial candy store today, wondering “where to begin?!” The variety of rock types in the workspace, the likes of which had not been seen for many hundreds of sols, made picking favorites a challenge. The job of surveying the variety was made easier by the opportunities to get four (4!) targets with a combination of MAHLI, APXS and ChemCam. MAHLI and APXS will image and analyze, respectively, the two large, gray blocks near the rover, “Staffa” (left) and “Tyndrum” (right). MAHLI and ChemCam will image and shoot, respectively, the targets “Askival,” the bright white rock above Tyndrum, and “Hopeman,” a lumpy rock which might be a conglomerate. Mastcam will cover much of the workspace with M100 images to get more detailed views of all the lithologies present, and will add multispectral observations over Hopeman, Askival and Tyndrum. [More at link]