This Navcam image shows the outcrop of red Jura rock that the rover will image during the weekend drive. Obtaining higher resolution images of this exposure will help the team determine if it could be drilled next week.

Today was one of those planning days when you realize the importance of being able to adapt quickly and think on your feet (i.e., wheels) when operating a rover on Mars. Our previous plan brought us to the Lothian E area, where we hoped to find an exposure of red Jura rock that was suitable for drilling. Unfortunately, the bedrock at this location appeared just as fractured as at the previous site, forcing the team to rethink the weekend plan.

The new possibilities included trying to drill a very small portion of the outcrop at Lothian E, do a short "bump" to another possible candidate in the near vicinity, or give up on this site and head in the direction of our long-term strategic route. Making these tactical decisions requires a lot of quick thinking; the team must weigh immediate scientific priorities with long-term goals, and must try to determine the best potential drill target with limited data. We never know exactly what we will find when we arrive at a new site, so the best we can do is use long distance imaging and lessons learned from previous sites to make an educated decision on where to send the rover next.

Ultimately, the team decided to spend one sol doing contact science at this location and then drive in the direction of our long-term strategic route. Observations at Lothian E will include Chemcam observations of bedrock targets "Blackfort Hill," "Woodhill," and "Dalziel," as well as Mastcam multispectral images of "Woodhill" and "Newburgh" targets. We also planned MAHLI and APXS measurements on "Woodhill" (after brushing) and "Springside". During the drive away, we will acquire a somewhat unconventional set of mid-drive observations on another exposure of red Jura rock. Hopefully this plan will put us in a good position on Monday to either drill the new outcrop or continue on our strategic path.

After a successful weekend of activities and driving, we were hopeful that we would wake up on Sol 2256 and be ready for contact science and drilling. Unfortunately, Mars had other plans; similar to Friday's planning, our workspace turned out to be just as fractured and unsuitable for drilling, so onward we go in search for a drill target elsewhere (again)! Our first two attempts at finding drillable red Jura were unlucky, so this time, we'll try our luck and head towards a third candidate drill location, called "Region C." Fingers crossed that the third time's the charm!

The plan for Sol 2256 includes a nice long science block before we drive. During the science block, we'll collect ChemCam data on two targets: "Sandy Haven," a small soil patch, and "Tarness Haven," a block of reddish outcrop in front of the rover. We'll also acquire a Mastcam multispectral mosaic looking ahead towards Region C to assess for color variations that will help us determine where the best red Jura location for drilling may be. The environmental group will also be acquiring some Navcam observations to monitor the atmosphere; these include a line of sight image and a dust devil movie.

After the science block, Curiosity will drive towards Region C, shown as the bright exposed bedrock in the mid-field of the Navcam image above. Halfway through the drive, we'll stop for some Mastcam and Navcam imaging to assess the upcoming terrain. Once we get to our final parking spot, we'll take some additional images to assess the ground in front of us. Together, these mid- and post-drive images will inform whether we drill at Region C or continue on in the search for red Jura. Stay tuned!

Even though they looked promising from a few meters away, this morning's workspace images showed us that the red Jura rocks we had hoped to drill are too fractured to drill safely. The texture of these rocks is actually fairly typical of the red Jura rocks, so finding one that is drillable may be challenging. But we're not giving up right away! The science and engineering teams identified another promising rock candidate just a few meters away, and we're going to bump towards that area in today's plan to get a closer look. As Surface Properties Scientist (SPS) today, I worked with the rover drivers to evaluate the geological properties of the terrain we will cross during this drive to ensure we won't drive over any rover hazards.

We will take some time to do science before the drive. In the morning of sol 2252, we have a long remote sensing science block where we will collect ChemCam and Mastcam observations of targets named "Knochan Crag," "Skatie Shore," and "Conan Mains." We'll also snap some Mastcam stereo images of additional potential drill targets in the area named "Dunecht" and "Stronecraigs." After the drive on sol 2253 we'll take an observation of the sky using ChemCam in passive (no laser) mode, along with additional environmental science measurements that include some taus, sky survey, crater rim extinction image, and dust devil searches.

[[MODULE||general.comparison||ParseModule=No&embed=false&includeComparisonJS=true&includeGeneralJS=true&displayCaption=false&imageLeftURL=https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02248/mhli/2248MH0003720010803302C00_DXXX-br2.jpg&imageRightURL=https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02161/mhli/2161MH0003720010802782C00_DXXX-br2.jpg&title=Image of the MAHLI calibration target]]
Dust has certainly been blowing around in Gale Crater lately. An image of the MAHLI calibration target that came down yesterday (sol 2248) was so much cleaner than an image of the same target taken a few weeks ago when the planet-wide dust storm had just started to abate! (sol 2161)

Image taken by the MAHLI, Mars Hand Lens Imager, on sol 2247. Note the sand movement into the drill hole.

On sol 2250 Curiosity finishes the observations on and around the Highfield drill hole and drives on to an area where red Jura is exposed. The dataset Curiosity collected at the Highfield location is very informative already before tosol's activities. It includes observations that especially benefit from the longer stay, such as the change detection imaging experiments. In one of the images, the sand movements became very apparent by the drill hole already starting to fill in - not a planned change detection, but an interesting one nonetheless. It is just a few sols since we drilled, yet sand has drifted in and parts of the drill fines have blown away. We were once more reminded, just how active Mars is!

Today's plan included the two last ChemCam observations in the Highfield area: one measurement will be taken of the Highfield dump pile, and one of a vein target called "Niddrie." Those will help us to better understand the drilled sample itself, and also the geologic and geochemical context of the drill site. Mastcam will document the activities as usual.

Then we will head off to the next potential drill site to find a good place to drill the red Jura. The team has extensively surveyed the area, and Curiosity is heading to a site called "Lothian." After the drive, Curiosity will gather as much information as she can by doing a large workspace Mastcam mosaic. Other activities are Navcam post drive imaging and an AEGIS. On to new adventures, red Jura, here we come!

While I fly back from a meeting in Colorado, I've been reflecting on what to write about this week on Mars. And what a week it has been. InSight's successful landing is surely the biggest news of the week. We now have a new robotic Martian ready to help unlock more clues about the origins, history, and evolution of Mars. I for one look forward to seeing the great science that comes out of that mission over the next few months and beyond.

But Curiosity was busy too! This week, and more specifically in this plan, we wrapped up the Highfield drill site campaign. I was on shift as Surface Properties Scientist (SPS) and while there were no new activities that required SPS analysis, the science team was busy! They filled a pair of science activity blocks with observations that ranged from targeted imaging with Mastcam to compositional analysis with the ChemCam instrument to close out any dangling observations left over from previous plans. On the first planned sol, the rover will use the MAHLI instrument to take high resolution microscopic images of the Highfield "dump pile" (where the rover discards extra un-needed sample) and will eventually place the APXS instrument on the "dump pile." These analyses are particularly valuable because they give us a sense of what the inner parts of the rock are made of, rather than including the often weathered exterior. Some additional long-distance imaging was planned to help plan the route up Mt. Sharp for the next months and years.

With more Mars missions in the works, both by NASA and internationally, we're poised to continue to learn more about the Red Planet in the coming years. Sometimes it's easy to forget what an amazing time we live in.

Image taken by the ChemCam RMI on sol 2242 of target "Little Colonsay," a potential meteorite.

Curiosity woke up to Mr Rogers "Please would you be my neighbour" this morning to welcome InSight, and then got very busy at the Highfield drill site. Every plan has its personality, and the upcoming one is that of a gymnast - at least as far as the arm is concerned: Curiosity will dump the Highfield sample, which requires several MAHLI looks and an APXS operation, but the plan also requires swinging the arm out of the way so other instruments can have their unobscured look at the dump pile.

Of course, the main activity is to look at the Highfield dump pile with all instruments available. APXS will get the chemistry, and Navcam, Mastcam and MAHLI will have a close look. In addition, a Mastcam multispectral and a ChemCam passive observation will add to the information collected from the dump pile.
Not only the arm, but also ChemCam is very busy these two sols, as in addition to the dump pile activities, it will look at four samples, two of which are re-targeted. One of the samples that we try to get a better look at is "Little Colonsay." The planning team thinks it might be a meteorite because it is so shiny. But looks can deceive, and proof will only come from the chemistry. Unfortunately, the small target was missed in the previous attempt, and with the information from that, Curiosity will try again. Another very small target is the target "Flanders Moss," which shows an interesting, dark coloured coating, for which chemistry is required to confirm its nature. Two additional targets, "Forres" and "Eildon," are to add to the database of the grey Jura bedrock before we leave the Highfield site next week.

Beyond ChemCam, Curiosity will document the workspace with a Mastcam M34 mosaic, and of course document all ChemCam targets. Finally, the environmental observations continue with a crater rim extinction, Mastcam Tau and dust devil monitoring. …a busy two sols on Mars!

Mastcam Right image of some of the Highfield drill fines that made it onto the ground over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Curiosity was happy and healthy after the Thanksgiving holiday, but experienced a minor post-holiday hiccup during a test of delivering sample portions to the workspace. The rover's robotic arm tripped a safety limit such that the activity did not quite go to completion. We should be able to easily recover the rest of this activity in our plan tosol. This should set us up to dump the "Highfield" drill fines later this week, so that we can analyze their chemistry and appearance with APXS, ChemCam, MAHLI and Mastcam, and compare these findings with those from the mineralogical and compositional analyses by Curiosity's internal instruments, CheMin and SAM.

As well as recovering the arm activity, we were able to plan a number of science observations to further characterize the bedrock in this workspace, continue our search for meteorites and monitor changes in the wind and sediment movement. ChemCam will analyze the composition of two typical grey bedrock targets, "Kingseat" and "Grampian," as well as a potential meteorite fragment, "Kerrera," identified from Mastcam multispectral images. ChemCam will also revisit the "Little Todday" meteorite target, to look for compositional variation. Mastcam will acquire supporting images of the various ChemCam targets, as well as re-image the "Sand Loch" and "Windyedge" targets for change detection.
We are also acquiring Mastcam imaging of two areas ("Dunecht" and "Lothian") within the nearby, more typical red Jura member of the Vera Rubin Ridge (as opposed to the patchy grey Jura member that we are currently parked on). These will help inform our decision about where to drive to next, and where we may want to attempt our next drill hole. We are ultimately trying to understand why the Vera Rubin Ridge is a ridge and resistant compared to the rest of the Murray formation we have been driving over. Does it represent a change in the environment that the sediments were deposited in, or does it reflect post-depositional changes to the rock?

The plan was rounded out with background REMS, passive DAN and RAD observations. Finally Curiosity and all of us on the team are excited to welcome the latest robotic explorer to the surface of Mars today. Congratulations to JPL and InSight on a successful landing. We look forward to learning about the interior workings of the red planet!

Today Curiosity is preparing for the imminent arrival of a new visitor to Mars, just as many of us are preparing for the out-of-town visitors who'll be descending into our homes over the Thanksgiving holiday. NASA's InSight mission will be landing in Elysium Planum on Monday, Nov. 26 at 12pm PST, and you can watch it on NASA's livestream starting at 11am PST. Although InSight will be landing 600 km north of Gale crater - too far for Curiosity to ever drop by for a visit - our rover operations will still be impacted because the two spacecraft have to share the limited resources of orbiter relays at Mars and scientist brainpower on Earth. For example, Curiosity's REMS team will be supporting InSight's landing on Monday (InSight has wind and air temperature sensors developed by the same group who built REMS at Spain's Centro de Astrobiología), and they won't be available to work for Curiosity that day. Fortunately, that doesn't mean that REMS will be idle on Monday; it just means we need to prepare REMS' observations in advance. So today, in addition to planning for Curiosity's sols 2240-2242 (which will take us through the holiday weekend), the science team also prepared all of the REMS activities that will happen early next week.

During sols 2240-2242, Curiosity will wrap up observations of the Highfield drill sample with a third and final CheMin analysis. Mastcam will be continuing to monitor the movement of sand grains at "Sand Loch" and "Windyedge," and ChemCam will observe a few new rock targets, including "Little Colonsay" (a potential meteorite), "Lunga" (a dark rock with unusual morphology) and "Noss" (another candidate meteorite).

Today Curiosity is preparing for the imminent arrival of a new visitor to Mars, just as many of us are preparing for the out-of-town visitors who'll be descending into our homes over the Thanksgiving holiday. NASA's InSight mission will be landing in Elysium Planum on Monday, Nov. 26 at 12pm PST, and you can watch it on NASA's livestream starting at 11am PST. Although InSight will be landing 600 km north of Gale crater - too far for Curiosity to ever drop by for a visit - our rover operations will still be impacted because the two spacecraft have to share the limited resources of orbiter relays at Mars and scientist brainpower on Earth. For example, Curiosity's REMS team will be supporting InSight's landing on Monday (InSight has wind and air temperature sensors developed by the same group who built REMS at Spain's Centro de Astrobiología), and they won't be available to work for Curiosity that day. Fortunately, that doesn't mean that REMS will be idle on Monday; it just means we need to prepare REMS' observations in advance. So today, in addition to planning for Curiosity's sols 2240-2242 (which will take us through the holiday weekend), the science team also prepared all of the REMS activities that will happen early next week.



During sols 2240-2242, Curiosity will wrap up observations of the Highfield drill sample with a third and final CheMin analysis. Mastcam will be continuing to monitor the movement of sand grains at "Sand Loch" and "Windyedge," and ChemCam will observe a few new rock targets, including "Little Colonsay" (a potential meteorite), "Lunga" (a dark rock with unusual morphology) and "Noss" (another candidate meteorite).

Image contains targets Little Todday, Grey Mares Tail, and Rosemarkie, from sol 2229

Curiosity is planning a smorgasbord of science over the next few days as it awaits results from digesting the "Highfield" drill target material. We'll continue change detection observations including subdiurnal (i.e. several times a martian day) Mastcam observations of "Sand Loch" and "Windyedge", as well as MARDI to watch moving sand grains beneath the rover, throughout the planning cycle. There's also a good helping of Mastcam sky column, Navcam sky flats, crater rim extinction, and suprahorizon and zenith movies to round out the meal of atmospheric events. Repeating observations during the day of the same locations are one of the unique ways the rover can provide an hourly view of Mars' surface that only a spacecraft on the ground can.

While we've sampled the bedrock, and found it quite tasty, we'll take a nibble with ChemCam at some scattered pebbles nearby: reddish/pink rocks named appropriately "Rosemarkie" and some more bluish toned rocks we called "Grey Mares Tail." There will also be a second helping of suspected meteorite "Little Todday" with a ChemCam Z-Stack (to measure its compositional variation with depth) and repeat Mastcam of the Highfield drill tailings to see if it's still being pushed around by daily winds.

For a final dessert, a Mastcam color image of "Greenheugh", a special type of ripple spaced 1.9 m apart that we've only seen on Mars, will be taken. The last image of that target was from over 250 sols ago (!), which may allow us to determine how fast they move across the surface