The Sol 775 MAHLI activities were planned in advance, so it was an easy
day for me as uplink lead--I only had to make minor changes to the
plan. MAHLI will take another image of the drill hole from 25 cm above
it, similar to the image
acquired on Sol 759 ,
but later in the day when the sun will
illuminate the entire scene. Then MAHLI will take images of the 5
locations on "Morrison" that will be measured by the APXS. All of the
images will be taken late enough in the day that they should be fully
illuminated by the Sun. On Sol 776, ChemCam and
Mastcam will observe several targets at various distances from the
rover, then CheMin will analyze the drill sample again overnight. The
CheMin analysis requires a fair amount of power, so the rover will
recharge most of the following day. Finally, after
sunset on Sol 777, Mastcam, and ChemCam will observe the bright star
Vega to help refine plans to observe comet Siding Spring next weekend. 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.

I'm scheduled to support MAHLI/MARDI uplink tomorrow ,
so today I'm getting familiar with recent results and near-term plans
after spending a couple days focusing on other projects. The
"Confidence Hills" campaign continues to go well,
with a successful dropoff of drill sample to SAM on Sol 773. The rover
will recharge its batteries after the overnight SAM sample analysis,
then use the arm instruments after sunset on Sol 774. APXS will take 4
measurements of the target " Morrison ",

then MAHLI will image the bottom of the drill hole using its LEDs for
illumination. MAHLI received merges of the nighttime images of the
sides of the drill hole on Sol 771 ( one of which shows bluish ChemCam
laser spots down one side of the hole), but has not acquired nighttime images of the bottom of the
hole yet. 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.

During the nighttime MAHLI imaging on Sol 768, there was a problem
with arm positioning that prevented the subsequent arm activities from completing. The problem is understood, and the arm
is in a safe configuration .

So the Sol 771 plan includes arm recovery activities as well as ChemCam
and Mastcam observations of nearby targets named "Pink Cliffs," "Comb
Ridge," "White Cliffs," "Crowley," and "Fairyland Point." Overnight
(into the morning of Sol 772), CheMin will analyze
the new drill sample again, to improve the quality of the mineralogic
measurement.

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.

The tactical team took a day off Thursday
to make the transition from restricted (every other day) to nominal
(daily) planning. That meant that, to complete all of the planning for
the weekend in time to send the commands to the rover
by the start of Sol 768 (at 7 PM PDT), planning had to start 1.5 hours earlier than usual (at 6:30 AM PDT).
It's good that we started early, because the weekend plan is full:
After SAM preconditioning during the day, MAHLI will image the
"Confidence Hills"
drill hole after sunset on Sol 768 using its LEDs to illuminate the
hole and tailings. SAM activities typically require lots of power and
are best done during the night, so the rover will recharge during the
day on Sol 769 before performing a 10-hour overnight
SAM evolved gas analysis without sample. This analysis will provide a
good baseline for the upcoming SAM measurements of the drill sample,
currently planned to begin on Sol 771. In preparation for those
measurements, SAM will perform another preconditioning
late on Sol 770, after the rover recharges during the day.

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.

Curiosity continues to investigate the Pahrump Hills outcrop. The Sol 767 plan includes MAHLI and APXS observations of the target Morrison, as well as MAHLI images of the drill hole and dump pile (the dump pile consists of the part of the drilled sample that did not make it through the 150-micron sieve). Today’s plan also includes ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the targets "Paoha," "The Maze," and "Quartz Spring," to characterize the drill tailings and other rock features. There is also an atmospheric observation to look for clouds, along with standard RAD and REMS activities. In addition to the science observations, the Sol 767 plan includes SAM cup conditioning to prepare for upcoming SAM activities. Tomorrow will be a soliday, and then we are looking forward to upcoming SAM and CheMin activities.


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.

Curiosity is currently investigating the Pahrump Hills outcrop. This Navcam image from Sol 762 shows part of the workspace with the arm down, analyzing the Confidence Hills drill tailings. While we wait for CheMin to tell us what minerals are present in the drilled sample, we will spend Sol 766 doing targeted remote sensing. The two-hour science block includes ChemCam observations of the interior wall of the Confidence Hills drill hole, as well as nearby fractures ("Straight Cliffs") and upcoming MAHLI and APXS targets named "Comb Ridge" and Morrison. There are also several Mastcam observations to document the ChemCam targets and image the nearby sand ripples. The plan also includes a number of atmospheric observations to monitor the opacity and search for clouds and dust devils. On Sol 767 we’re planning to do contact science on the target Morrison, and prepare for possible SAM activities.

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.

After our successful drill last week, the main event in
today’s sol 765 plan is dropping off the drilled sample in CheMin, which will
tell us what minerals are in the rocks of Pahrump Hills. CheMin works by
shining a beam of X-rays through the sample and recording how the X-rays
reflect off of the structure of the crystals in the sample. To make sure that
every possible orientation of the crystals is measured, the sample holder
vibrates, causing the powdered rock to mix around in the sample cell.

The drill sample has been sieved so that only particles
smaller than 150 microns will go to CheMin. The rover will dump out the particles
that are coarser than 150 microns, take pictures of them with Mastcam and MAHLI,
and measure their composition with APXS. Not all of the fine-grained sample
will go to CheMin: some will be saved for analysis by SAM, and in case we want
to re-analyze it with CheMin. 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.

Arm activities will resume on Sol 762, starting where they left off on
Sol 759, with transfer of the drill sample to the scoop and Mastcam imaging of
it. Then the APXS will be placed on the drill tailings (target dubbed "Paradox") for an overnight integration. In addition,
ChemCam will observe targets "Panum" and "Stovepipe Wells" and Mastcam
will image the drill tailings through all filters. Finally, SAM will
heat a sample from the previous
drill target "Windjana" ( still held in a sample cup )
and measure evolved noble gases overnight on Sols 763 and 764. As
MAHLI/MARDI PUL1 again today, I focused on planning MAHLI observations
of the drill
tailings, but they were deleted because of concerns about the overall
complexity of the weekend plan. We hope to take these MAHLI images on
Sol 765.
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.

The Sol 759 drill hole looks good,
but
there was a problem with one of the rover's gyroscopes that halted the
transfer of drill sample to the scoop. This did not significantly
affect Sol 761 planning, which is dominated by patching flight software
and SAM preconditioning. Completion
of the sample handling will be planned later. As MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead today I
therefore concentrated on planning the images we would like to take of
the drill tailings and perhaps other targets.

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.

It’s time to drill! The mini-drill over the weekend showed
that the Pahrump Hills outcrop is nice and stable, so the main activity in the
sol 759 plan is a full drill and the associated images from Mastcam and MAHLI. While
the arm is out, we will also make some APXS measurements of the tailings from
the mini-drill. We won’t have an uplink tomorrow, and the rover will be low on
energy after the drilling activity, so Sol 760 will be a less eventful day,
with just standard environmental monitoring. 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.