In today’s plan, our goal is to place the rover in position
to study some interesting knobby textures. Prior to the drive, Navcam will do
some atmospheric measurements and ChemCam will analyze the targets “Duruchaus”,
“Eiseb”, and “Aranos”. As usual, Mastcam will take some documentation images of
the ChemCam targets. Mastcam also has a mosaic of fine laminations in the rock
at the Murray-Stimson contact, another mosaic to extend the coverage of the
contact, and a small 2×1 mosaic of Mirabib and nearby veins using all of
Mastcam’s science filters. After that, we will do a short drive toward the
knobby texture followed by post-drive imaging. The knobby texture is not in a
great position for us to continue driving after we analyze it, so we’ll likely
return back to our current position before continuing up onto Naukluft
plateau. by Ryan Anderson -Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL. Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
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