MSL planning will transition from restricted to nominal next week, so the weekend plan includes only 2 sols, 585 and 586. The first sol is dominated by contact science, mostly MAHLI imaging of areas of the outcrop that have not yet been observed by MAHLI. Targeted remote science is planned on both sols, with APXS and CheMin activities overnight. As SOWG Chair today, I was very busy working to squeeze all of these good observations into the plan. We couldn't fit everything we wanted, but very close! On Sol 586, the rover will bump back from the outcrop in preparation for another full set of MAHLI wheel images. MAHLI has been very busy the past few days, and not done yet!

MSL planning is still restricted, but because the rover has not moved we were able to plan more targeted contact science on Sol 584. After ChemCam and Mastcam observations of a couple nearby rock targets, a big mosaic of the recessive layers in the outcrop in front of us is planned. Then MAHLI will image a couple of small landslides (visible here ) that were probably caused by vibration of the surface as the rover drove up to this outcrop. The contact science block will conclude with MAHLI images of Pandanus Yard . But that's not all--after more ChemCam and Mastcam observations late in the afternoon, APXS will integrate and CheMin will perform a calibration analysis overnight. It was a busy planning day!

The bump toward the outcrop put us in a good position for contact science, so it was a busy day for me as MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead. We planned an APXS raster (5 positions) on the cleaner vertical face of the outcrop, with MAHLI imaging of each APXS spot. In addition, ChemCam and Mastcam observations of a target dubbed Hooper were planned.

Planning is still restricted, so the Sol 582 plan includes only untargeted observations. The ChemCam calibration images of the sky we planned for Sol 577 were not acquired due to the first arm fault, so we added them to the Sol 582 plan. SAM activities, in preparation for sample analysis at The Kimberley , were also included.

There was a minor problem with the Sol 576 imaging of CHIMRA that prevented the rest of that sol's plan from completing, and concerns about the safety of the remote sensing mast prevented uplink of the Sol 577 commands. So the rover did very little on Sol 577, but the tactical planning team on Earth had to scramble to recover the uncompleted activities in the weekend plan. After considering several possibilities, Sol 578 was dedicated to recovering all of the CHIMRA imaging and more that was originally planned to be done later. There was time to get some ChemCam observations before a bump to the outcrop on Sol 579, and Sol 580 was dominated by the large Mastcam mosaic of the outcrop that was originally planned for Sol 577.

The Sol 578 activities were interrupted by another arm "fault" caused by a command error, but this error is well understood, and the rover is healthy and ready to resume arm activities on Sol 581. First, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe new targets on the outcrop in front of the rover, then the rover will "bump" toward the outcrop and take data to enable contact science planning on Wednesday.

Planning is still restricted, so the Sol 577 plan includes only untargeted science observations. I focused on ChemCam RMI images of the sky for calibration, which made it into the plan as desired. A large Mastcam mosaic of the Kimberley area was also planned, along with more CheMin and SAM activities to prepare for sample analysis.

The Sol 574 post-drive images show nice outcrops in front of the rover, suitable for contact science. This image shows the favored rock face for contact science at upper left. The Sol 576 plan starts with a ChemCam observation of this rock face, plus a Mastcam stereo mosaic of the outcrop. Then the arm will be deployed to "thwack" and vibrate CHIMRA to clean out any remnants of the "John Klein" sample, followed by Mastcam and RMI imaging of the CHIMRA sieve. After stowing the arm, the rover will bump about 2.7 meters toward the outcrop and take the data needed to plan contact science this weekend.

MSL and Pasadena times are out of synch, so planning is restricted and Sol 575 is an untargeted science sol while we wait for the data needed to drive again. CheMin, ChemCam and SAM will perform calibration and related activities in preparation for the upcoming analyses at the "Kimberley" waypoint.

The rover moved about 74 meters on Sol 568, and a ~100 m drive along the path toward "The Kimberley" (shown on image) is planned for Sol 569. Mars time continues to shift later relative to Earth time, so no planning is scheduled for Sol 569 to allow a full weekend plan to be developed tomorrow.