More diagnostic data are needed to fully understand the cause of the Sol
911 fault, so no arm activities are planned for this weekend. The
Mastcam thermal characterization will be completed early on Sol 918,
while it's still cold. Another
test to diagnose the power issue is planned that afternoon, followed by
ChemCam and Mastcam observations of targets dubbed "Ophir" and
"Keetley," and a Navcam "movie" to search for clouds over Aeolis Mons
("Mt. Sharp"). On Sol 919, a Mastcam stereo mosaic
of "Book Cliffs" will be followed by more ChemCam observations,
including another attempt to measure the elemental chemistry of a bright
feature in the wall of the "Telegraph Peak" drill hole.

The feature is only a few millimeters long, so is difficult to hit with
the laser--previous attempts just barely missed it. Later in the
afternoon, Mastcam will acquire a stereo mosaic of a target called
"Brazer." The only science activities planned for
Sol 920 are the usual REMS and RAD observations. by Ken Herkenhoff

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 MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead today, but there hasn't been much for me to
do because of the restriction on arm activities following last week's
fault .
The arm is being used exclusively for diagnostic testing to determine
the cause of the fault; test results are being analyzed by the MSL engineering
team. As this
work continues, the remote sensing instruments are being used to examine
nearby rocks and soils, including ChemCam observations of the drill
hole .
More ChemCam observations are planned for Sol 917, plus several Mastcam
observations intended to measure the effect of varying temperatures on
camera focus. by Ken Herkenhoff 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 latest "bump"
placed the rover in a good position for detailed study of the outcrop of
interest, as we all hoped. The plan that
will take the rover through the weekend is, in the words of the SOWG
Chair Doug Ming, "jam-packed" with science observations. The MSL
tactical team is focused on examination of an outcrop target called
"Telegraph Peak" to determine whether it is suitable
for drilling. On Sol 905, MAHLI will take pictures of Telegraph Peak
before it is cleaned off by the brush. Mastcam and ChemCam will then
observe the brushed target before the arm is used to acquire a full
suite of MAHLI images, two APXS measurements, and
test the strength of the target by pushing the drill assembly against
it. Finally, the APXS will be placed on Telegraph Peak again for
overnight integrations. In parallel, starting around midnight, SAM will perform a static test of its quadrupole mass spectrometer.

The next morning, the arm will be moved out of the
way to allow ChemCam and Mastcam observations of nearby targets "Brazer"
and "Crazy Hollow." Later in the afternoon, when lighting will be
better for some distant targets, Mastcam will
acquire a couple of mosaics. Just after sunset, now that the rover is in a
new location, MARDI will acquire an image of the ground near the left
front wheel. Only a few activities are planned for Sol 907, including
another Mastcam mosaic and a Navcam search for
dust devils, to allow the rover's batteries to recharge in preparation
for possible drilling on Sol 908.

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 in
search of the next drill target, and the main activity in today’s plan is to
"bump" closer to a rock outcrop for contact science. Curiosity will
perform a short drive, which will set us up to use the instruments on the
rover’s arm to assess the potential for drilling here. The plan also includes several ChemCam and
Mastcam observations of the targets "Emery" and "Elbert" to characterize the
outcrop and a nearby vein. We will also
acquire a Mastcam mosaic of the outcrop named "Newspaper Rock" to understand
the local stratigraphy. After the drive
Curiosity will acquire Navcam images for future targeting, and a Mastcam image
for a systematic clast survey. The
second sol of this plan is untargeted, so Curiosity will monitor the atmosphere
with Navcam and Mastcam, and perform some ChemCam calibration activities. I’m on MER duty today, and Opportunity is
also "bumping" to a location overlooking Marathon Valley. Another busy day on
Mars! By Lauren Edgar

--Lauren is a
Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of MSL
science team.

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.

Today we planned 4 sols to take the rover through President’s
day weekend. We humans get a long weekend, but the rover has a lot of work to
do! We were supposed to drive about 45 meters in the previous plan, but the
data received this morning showed that the rover stopped after only 17 meters.
I was on duty as the ChemCam science Payload Uplink Lead (sPUL) today, and in
the science theme group meeting we were worried that the short drive would
cause a major change in the plan, but it turned out not to be a problem. The
rover drivers understand why the rover stopped early and had no concerns about
simply continuing the drive in today’s plan. Even better, there was enough room
in the plan to do the drive without changing how much time we had to do science!

The location where the rover stopped was mostly flat bedrock
and large sand ripples: not where we planned to stop, but still plenty of
science to do. On sol 899, ChemCam will analyze the target "Osiris" and on Sol
900 ChemCam will analyze "Garley." Both of these targets are patches of
bedrock, so the chemistry data, when combined with the many other observations
of bedrock over the last few weeks and months, will help understand how the
rocks change throughout the stratigraphic section.

Mastcam has an 8x3 mosaic of Osiris on Sol 899, which seems
to have some fine layering that is barely visible in Navcam. On sol 900 Mastcam
also will take a documentation image of Garley, a 2x2 mosaic of a layered rock
near the rover called "Sneakover" (because it was snuck into the plan at the
last minute), and a 2x2 mosaic of "Hermosa," where the rover tracks cross a
sand ripple.

On sol 901, ChemCam will make some passive (no laser)
measurements of the sky, and then Curiosity will resume the drive that was cut
short. After the drive, we have standard imaging to get our bearings, plus a
Mastcam 360 degree mosaic and a Navcam cloud observation. The DAN instrument
will do an active measurement after the drive to characterize the amount of
light elements (such as the hydrogen in water) under the rover in the new
location. And finally, ChemCam will do some routine measurements of the
calibration targets.

On sol 902, the rover gets a bit of a rest, with just
routine environmental measurements by RAD and REMS. 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.

The planning day
kicked off to a great start, with the SOWG Chair (Aileen Yingst) reminding us
that we do have the coolest job in the world.
I’m the Geology Theme Lead today, and it certainly feels like an
exciting job. In this plan we’ve managed
to use almost every instrument onboard the rover to characterize the most
recent drill sample and the surrounding environment. First we’ll dump the post-sieve sample, and
then we’ll "thwack" and vibrate CHIMRA (the Collection and Handling for in-Situ
Martian Rock Analysis) to clean out any remnants of the sample. Later in the plan we’ll use MAHLI and APXS to
characterize the grain size and composition of the dump pile, and Mastcam to document
the pile with all of the camera filters.
We’ll also use ChemCam to assess a nearby vein, and MAHLI will carry out
some nighttime imaging of the drill hole and CheMin inlet. We don’t often mention it in our blogs, but
every sol we’re also collecting RAD, REMS and DAN data for radiation
assessment, environmental monitoring, and neutron detection. Meanwhile the SAM instrument is patiently
waiting to analyze the samples that we "doggie bagged" a few sols ago. I like this Front Hazcam image that came down over the weekend – I feel like Curiosity’s shadow is striking a
strong pose, having conquered the "Pink Cliffs" outcrop and ready to move on to
the next location! By Lauren Edgar

--Lauren is a
Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of MSL
science team.

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 three sol plan
will keep Curiosity very busy this weekend.
The main activities in this plan include dropping off part of the
Mojave2 drill sample to the SAM instrument, and some remote sensing activities
with Mastcam, ChemCam and Navcam. The
samples that we’re dropping off to SAM can be thought of as "doggie bags"
because we’ll take the sample with us for analysis at a later time. The first sol of the weekend plan also
includes several atmospheric monitoring activities with Navcam and
Mastcam. The second sol includes a
number of ChemCam observations to assess the chemistry of a soil target and
perform some instrument calibration activities.
The third sol is devoted to ChemCam and Mastcam observations of an
interesting vein target named "San Francisquito" to assess its chemistry and test
ChemCam autofocusing in low light conditions.
The vein was previously captured in this MAHLI image . I’ll be on duty as the Geology Theme Lead on
Monday, so I’m trying to get up to speed to prepare for next week! By Lauren Edgar

--Lauren is a
Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of MSL
science team.

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.

MSL's batteries are almost fully
charged, so the Sol 890 plan includes another CheMin measurement of the
"Mojave2" drill sample. CheMin and SAM require more power than the
other instruments, but we want to better understand the mineral
composition of the drill sample before we dump the rest of the sample
and drive away, so these observations have high priority. In addition,
ChemCam and Mastcam observations of a nearby target named "Searles" are
planned, along with images of distant targets. I'm not scheduled SOWG
Chair today, but of course I wanted to call in to the operations
teleconference to see how things are going, and was glad to see that the
Sol 889 activities we planned yesterday completed successfully. For
example, this ChemCam RMI image shows the hole the laser made in the
dump pile. by Ken Herkenhoff 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 888 data show that the rover's batteries are recharging, and we received more data than expected. So Sol 889 planning is less constrained by power, and we were able to include ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the dump pile (center of this image ). In the afternoon, a full suite of MAHLI images of the bright vein dubbed "San Francisquito" will be taken. The APXS will then be placed on the rock adjacent to
the vein for a short integration after sunset, then centered on the vein
for a full overnight integration. The APXS data obtained in these two
positions will allow the chemistry of the vein
to be more accurately compared to that of the surrounding rock. by Ken Herkenhoff
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 887 data received this morning show that a
sample portion was successfully delivered to SAM, and the un-sieved part
of the sample was dumped onto the ground as planned (the pile is just
above center in this image ).
Sol 888 activities are limited by the need to recharge the batteries,
but we were able to plan a full suite of MAHLI
images of the dump pile and place APXS on it for an overnight
integration. With very few additional activities in the plan, it has
been a relatively easy day for me as SOWG Chair. by Ken Herkenhoff
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.