Another beautiful hole on Mars: Sols 3825-3826

Written by Copernical Team Friday, 12 May 2023 02:56

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Pasadena CA (JPL) May 11, 2023

Coming in for sol 3825 planning today, the team was very excited to see that we successfully drilled a new hole on the Ubajara target. The image shows the drill contacting the rock, just before beginning the drilling activity. On the first sol of the plan, we begin with some imaging. We take a stereo mosaic of the target "Kukenan" to document the bedding of the local bedrock. We also take

Another beautiful hole on Mars: Sols 3825-3826
by Ashley Stroupe | Mission Ops - JPL
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 11, 2023

Coming in for sol 3825 planning today, the team was very excited to see that we successfully drilled a new hole on the Ubajara target. The image shows the drill contacting the rock, just before beginning the drilling activity.

On the first sol of the plan, we begin with some imaging. We take a stereo mosaic of the target "Kukenan" to document the bedding of the local bedrock. We also take ChemCam and Mastcam post-drill observations of the drill target, Ubajara, to see the drill hole and the drill tailings. There is also a Navcam large dust devil survey and a Mastcam image of the CheMin inlet before we drop off sample. Normally we take images of the CheMin inlet immediately before and after sample drop-off. This time we are doing the sample drop-off at night in order to minimize the time between dropping off and analysis. As a result, we have to take the images of the inlet outside of the arm activities. After a nap, Curiosity wakes up to drop off the sample to CheMin for an overnight analysis. Science is very anxious to see how this sample differs from Tapo Caparo, which was about 25m lower in elevation than the Ubajara location. A few hours later, CheMin will proceed with analyzing the sample.

On the second sol of the plan, we are trying to conserve power for an expected upcoming SAM observation on the sample. We have some imaging, including Mastcam imaging for change detection on the target Azufral (which we observed in the prior plan), and a stereo mosaic to extend our workspace coverage, and the image of the CheMin inlet after the drop-off. ChemCam takes a LIBS observation and Mastcam a single supporting image of the target "Jaru," a nodular bedrock target nearby. In this block is also an Navcam atmospheric observation, line-of-sight facing north. Lastly, ChemCam takes an RMI long-distance image of the inverted channel, near the area the rover may approach in the future.