In Monday’s plan, sample was delivered to SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) for an EGA (evolved gas analysis) activity, which involved heating the sample to very high temperatures and measuring the gases that bake out of the sample with each temperature increment. Coming into planning this morning, we were waiting to see what SAM thought – had it got enough information from the sample, or was there interest in going further? And SAM said Yes please! and requested a follow up activity, using the gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer (GCMS), which can identify different compounds. On the first sol of the weekend, SAM will uplink a sequence to clean the SAM Gas Columns (GC),before analyzing the sample on the second sol of the weekend plan.

These are very power intensive procedures, so GEO was limited in its activities. Luckily, this workspace continues to interest us. ChemCam is conducting a paired experiment across a raised vein area (the ridged crack in the centre of the image above), with one sample “Falls of Shin” right on the vein itself and a second sample “Falls of Foyers” a little beyond the vein area. This will allow the ChemCam team to study the alteration effects associated with the vein.

As the APXS Strategic planner this week, it has been pretty quiet for me. No APXS or MAHLI are allowed until the drilled sample is emptied from the drill. However, next week will be busy, cramming all our final contact science investigations on the Maria Gordon drilled samples before we move into Conjunction the following week. Curiosity gets to take a bit of a vacation for a couple of weeks, as it moves behind the sun, and all communications will cease for two weeks.

Coming into planning today, we had to be mindful of power after the energy intensive delivery of the Maria Gordon drilled sample to SAM and the Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) of that sample, currently taking place on Mars. While we wait for the results of the SAM EGA, we are continuing to survey the stunning terrain around us as we transition from clay-bearing to sulfate-bearing rocks. ChemCam will analyze the chemistry of a rough textured bedrock area, “Ruby Bay” and Mastcam will acquire a supporting documentation image of the same target. The remaining activities in this single sol plan are the standard REMS, RAD and DAN measurements, and Mastcam and Navcam environmental observations.

As the APXS Payload Uplink and Download Lead, it has been a quiet day, with no arm or APXS activities permitted until we dump the drill sample. I made sure that APXS was healthy by checking the downlink and then focused my attention on some features that we hope to analyze as we drive away from this location. By pre-planning desired observations, we can streamline the tactical process for when we eventually attempt the desired measurement.

We are all eagerly awaiting the results of the SAM EGA. Based on those results, the SAM team will decide if they want to perform a Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry analysis, or if we will proceed with dumping the sample. If we dump the sample, we hope to drive away from Maria Gordon next week.

Curiosity is working her way through a busy drill campaign at the Maria Gordon location and keeping her eyes on the beautiful cliffs nearby. Unfortunately the weekend plan didn’t uplink to the rover due to a DSN issue, so that means that today’s two-sol plan was devoted to recovering those activities. CheMin got to analyze the drill sample last week, so now it’s SAM’s turn. The main activities in today’s plan are the drop-off to SAM and Evolved Gas Analysis. CheMin will also dump the sample to clear out the cell for future use. The science team planned a lot of targeted remote sensing observations, including a ChemCam observation down the drill hole, multiple Mastcam mosaics to investigate nearby stratigraphy and nodule-rich areas, another ChemCam observation of a delicious target named “Chocolate Bloc” and a lot of environmental monitoring activities to monitor dust and clouds and search for dust devils. I was on shift as Long Term Planner today, so I was busy revising our sol path to respond to changes and think about multiple options for the rest of this week depending on the results of the SAM experiment. Can’t wait to find out what SAM thinks of the Maria Gordon sample!

One of our ChemCam LIBS targets in today’s plan is named "Chocolate Bloc." And aside from making me hungry, it reminded me of the wide range of colors of Mars. Colors ranging from the bright white of its polar caps, to the deep chocolate browns of the sand dunes, to a thousand shades of red, pink, tan, and yellow. It reminded me of a scene in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy of novels where the characters try to identify all the various colors they see outside on the planet’s surface. But color is often very much in the eye of the beholder and making it as uniform as possible, so different locations can be properly compared, is an important job. Mastcam regularly takes pictures of its (now very dusty and seemingly uniform in color) calibration target for this very purpose (this is the most recent one from last weekend).

Aside from getting the measure of Chocolate Bloc, our primary goal this weekend is for SAM to study the material from our Maria Gordon drill hole. SAM will heat the material to very high temperatures to determine what it’s made of and how water may have interacted with the rock in the distant past. We’ll also do a variety of imaging with Mastcam and a ChemCam long-distance image of Rafael Navarro mountain.

Any morning where we get to plan Curiosity’s activities on Mars is a good morning, but mornings we find out we’ve successfully drilled are extra sweet. The subset of the Curiosity operations team who are located at JPL have a tradition of celebrating the rover’s successful drills by eating donut holes. Although it’s difficult to share a delicious box of donut holes while we’re all working remotely, the team has still found creative ways to keep the tradition alive. Over the weekend, we learned that Curiosity collected its 33^rd drilled sample from the “Maria Gordon” drill location, so Project Manager Megan Lin shared a recipe for baked apple cider donut holes with everyone to celebrate this morning. Apple cider donut holes sound perfect for fall, so I know what I’ll be baking tonight! Mmmmm.

The star of today’s plan is delivery and analysis of drilled material from Maria Gordon to the CheMin onboard laboratory. These analyses will tell us detailed information about the minerals that are present in this rock. In addition to the CheMin activities, we will also acquire a few Mastcam mosaics, ChemCam RMI mosaics, and ChemCam LIBS observation of the drill hole wall and nearby bedrock target named “Holoman Island.” Some environmental science monitoring will round out the plan. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this rock is made of and continuing to study the geology exposed in our scenic location.

Looking over the shoulder, well, over our UHF antenna, onto a spectacular landscape. The higher we climb the more spectacular and rugged the scenery appears. This image was taken by Mast Camera (Mastcam) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3225.

Our recent two-sol plan for sols 3226-3227 was not uplinked, so the rover had a two-sol break. The next plan is a four-sol plan because of Monday being the Labor Day holiday in the US. As a consequence, the plan now has drill preparations, such as doing a ChemCam raster, the DRT and Mastcam multispectral observation of the drill site on sol 3228, and getting CheMin ready, too. Curiosity will drill at "Maria Gordon" on sol 3229, followed by portion characterization, and Mastcam multispectral investigation and ChemCam passive spectral investigation of the drill tailings. So, when we come back from our holiday here on Earth, we shall see images of drill hole #33 on Mars. Second time lucky!

With a four-sol plan to come, there is a lot more to do for Curiosity. We are back in the season where frost events are likely. Therefore, a frost detection investigation on the target "Mangersta Sands" is in the plan, whereby the target will be investigated twice, once very early in the morning and once during daytime for a comparison of the hydrogen, a proxy for water content at different times. Mastcam is taking two large mosaics to document the spectacular landscape – because spectacular to look at is not just an aesthetic judgement, there is a lot of geology to see, too, with different layers, textures and structures. Last but not least, we also have the standard atmospheric observations, DAN and REMS investigations.

Tosol on Mars, the MSL team is commanding Curiosity to drill sample #33. As previously documented on this blog, this drill target is named in honor of Maria Gordon, a pioneer in women's higher education, geology, and women's rights. Supporting the drill activity tosol, Mastcam, Navcam, and ChemCam are imaging the drill target, Mastcam is imaging the drill tailings, and ChemCam is collecting passive data of the drill tailings. Aside from drill activities, Navcam and Mastcam are also making atmospheric observations, and Mastcam is taking images of "Rafael Navarro Mountain." In addition, DAN, REMS, and RAD are executing standard activities.

Our short drive over the weekend successfully landed us within half a meter of our desired parking elevation for our next attempt at drilling in Gale crater. Among the sites surrounding us is the steep, shadowed cliff visible in the upper left corner of the image above. That cliff marks the western wall of our narrow passageway up Mount Sharp, which the team has named “Maria Gordon Notch.” Maria Ogilvie Gordon was a Scottish scientist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with expertise in geology, paleontology, and zoology. She combined her knowledge of modern and fossil corals and extensive fieldwork campaigns to describe the geologic history and stratigraphy of the Dolomite Mountains of Italy. Her work earned her the first Doctor of Science awarded to a woman in the United Kingdom. While Curiosity might not find corals on her way up Mount Sharp, she will certainly strive to follow Maria Gordon’s example of careful, thorough and important geologic work!

As we sit within view of Maria Gordon Notch, the science team thought it only natural to name our next drill site after her, too. Thus, today’s plan focused on brushing the candidate drill target, “Maria Gordon,” followed by MAHLI imaging, APXS analyses, and load testing of the target. We also ran a CheMin empty cell analysis to make sure that vessel is ready to receive sample. Those activities and the next anticipated activity - drilling itself - require a lot of power, so there was not much time for additional science observations. REMS, DAN, and RAD will run at their regular cadence across the two sols of the plan, but the only additional environmentally-focused observation we added was a Navcam dust devil survey. The geology working group managed to squeeze in a survey of their own, a 360 degree Mastcam mosaic acquired early in the morning. The early morning time was desired to get lighting on the east-facing cliffs - including Maria Gordon Notch - rising from the terrain around us. The mosaic will surely provide a great overview of this site, and will help guide our subsequent observations among our own mountains of exploration.

Recent workspaces have featured two types of textures – one smooth, one rougher with small nodules or grains apparent. In the last plan, APXS and MAHLI investigated the rougher material in the target "Smailholm," so today we will brush and analyze the smoother material in the target "Saltopus" with APXS, MAHLI and Mastcam. ChemCam will shoot the LIBS laser at Saltopus, and an example of the smoother material at "Stainton."

Mastcam will image the appropriately named "Temptation Hill," the base of which is peppered with large "popcorn" nodules, large enough to be visible in the image above. These are just out of reach, tempting us to swing over that way and spend some time there, but we are on a tight deadline, with our next drill campaign starting – so images will have to suffice!

Curiosity has a mission guideline to drill roughly every 25 metres of elevation gain. Our last drill campaign was just six weeks ago, when we drilled at Pontours on sol 3170, but this weekend’s plan sees us gearing up to drill again, since we are now 25 metres higher. This weekend’s plan marks the first sol ("sol Zero") of this drill campaign, as we get ourselves into position over the desired bedrock target. We are driving a short 15 metres to some promising looking bedrock, whose chemical composition and physical properties will be assessed in the next plan to make sure we can safely drill our thirty-third hole on Mars!

If all goes according to today’s plan, we should end up about 7 meters from our next drill location. We’ve noticed a change in the texture of the rocks over the last few drives, so we are eagerly collecting data as we approach the drill site to help understand what caused the change.

The Sol 3219 plan starts off with APXS and MAHLI observations of the target “Smailholm” followed by a ChemCam chemistry measurement on the bedrock target “Dunlop.” ChemCam will also use its telescope to take a long distance mosaic of the layers on “Rafael Navarro Mountain.” Mastcam will then document the area around targets Dunlop and Smailholm, and collect two more mosaics covering a layered outcrop named “Dunnideer” and the layers at the base of the more distant “Siccar Point.” After that, we’ll drive and collect all the usual post-drive images.

On Sol 3220 Navcam will make several observations, measuring the amount of dust in the atmosphere and watching for clouds and dust devils. Mastcam will also make an atmospheric dust measurement. After the atmospheric observations, ChemCam will autonomously target a patch of bedrock and analyze it. Overnight APXS will measure the atmospheric composition and ChemCam will run some passive calibration activities.