Curiosity update: Slippery slope

Sol 2087, June 19, 2018, update by MSL scientist Michelle Minitti: Curiosity pulled away from the “Duluth” site yesterday, but given the blocky nature of the “Blunts Point” member and the sand in between those blocks, she did not get far. The drive stopped after only ~8 m, so the rover planners will give it another try today, slightly rejiggering the drive planned yesterday to move among the rocks on the slope back up to the top of the “Vera Rubin Ridge.” The rover was left perched a bit awkwardly on a loose rock and some sand, so contact science was not possible before the drive. Instead, we shot “Ambridge” with ChemCam, a rock broken by the wheels on our drive down to Duluth. We previously acquired a Mastcam multispectral observation on Ambridge from our Duluth… [More at link]