After the holiday hiatus, the MSL operations team sprang back into action to plan Sol 147 activities. The rover has been waiting patiently for more exciting duties, and she will be rewarded with commands to drive toward a sinuous outcrop named "Snake River." The science team studied the data acquired and returned over the holidays and decided that "Snake River" and the surrounding rocks should be the next subject of investigation using the arm instruments. As SOWG Chair, I was responsible for leading the team to this decision, and the thoughtful analysis that the team recently completed made my job easy. In addition to the drive, we planned pre-drive ChemCam and Mastcam observations of nearby rocks, and all the post-drive imaging needed to properly plan arm activities in the new location.

I was Science Uplink Representative (SUR) for the last time for Sol 134 planning. The MSL Project decided to combine the SOWG Chair and SUR jobs starting in the new year, so the SOWG Chairs will be working longer shifts. Sol 134 planning was restricted (data arrived too late to affect planning) so we focused on ChemCam calibration observations. Therefore, it was not a complicated planning day and I recognized that combining the SOWG Chair and SUR jobs would not be difficult. Sol 135 was the last one planned tactically before the holiday break. While I'm disappointed that MSL will be relatively idle during the break, I and the rest of the operations team are ready for a vacation.

I was Geology Science Theme Group Lead today for the first time in several weeks, and it ended up being a busy day. We had to pick the location we want to park the rover during the Christmas/New Year's holiday break, and drive there on Sol 133 so that we get the images taken from the new location before the last planning session before the break. We are in "restricted" planning again, because Mars and Earth time our out of sync enough that we don't get data from the rover in time to plan the next sol. Therefore, we can't precisely target observations from the new location until Sol 135. We decided to drive to a place with a good view of the outcrops surrounding Yellowknife Bay to allow good imaging of these outcrops before the holiday break. As the images are returned during the break, we can use them to help decide where to perform the first drilling operation.

Planning went more smoothly for Sol 130, mostly because there was no uncertainty about the use of the arm. The biggest decision was whether to use the arm to acquire more APXS and MAHLI data on another target before driving away. Once the data from the Sol 129 observations were verified as good enough (including the highest-resolution MAHLI images acquired yet ), we concluded that observing other targets with ChemCam and Mastcam was more important. We also had to decide where to drive, and settled on an approach to a steep exposure of rock just north of the rover.

We have been waiting for the remaining soil sample in CHIMRA to be dumped before the arm instruments can be fully used again. The Sol 128 plan included cleaning the sample out of CHIMRA and taking Mastcam images to confirm that the cleaning was successful. If that went well, we could plan "contact science" with the arm on Sol 129. But the confirming data would not be analyzed until the beginning of the SOWG meeting, so we had to formulate contingency plans while we waited for the go-ahead for contact science. This made for a difficult planning day for the team. As SOWG Chair, I had to make quick decisions and rush through the meeting, but I was happy with the plan when we were through. We got the word that CHIMRA was clean a bit earlier than expected, and proceeded to plan observations of 2 targets in front of the rover with APXS and MAHLI. We also planned ChemCam and Mastcam observations, plus DAN active neutron spectroscopy in our new location.

I'm back in Flagstaff after a nice vacation with my wife, catching up on what the rovers have been doing while I was away. MSL has been busy driving down into "Yellowknife Bay," pausing at a layered outcrop dubbed Shaler to acquire remote-sensing data. The rover is now on the floor of Yellowknife Bay, looking for a good target for the first drilling operation. A short drive toward a small scarp is planned for Sol 127.

Again, there were no MAHLI or MARDI activities planned during my last sol (for a while) as PUL. But lots of ChemCam and Mastcam observations of local rock targets were planned, along with SAM's 4th analysis of soil. The previous measurements of the soil show evidence for a variety of compounds, perhaps including organics. But the organics may have been brought from Earth , so further analyses are needed to confirm this.

I will be on vacation for a week, but will try to keep track of what MSL is up to.

I'm MAHLI/MARDI PUL1 again today, and again no MAHLI or MARDI activities made it into the plan. The focus of the Sol 114 plan is to deliver another sample of the wind ripple to SAM. The last scoop sample was saved in CHIMRA to allow the option of analyzing another sample; we are exercising that option now. This new SAM analysis of the scoop sample is motivated in part by the desire to better understand the results of the previous SAM analysis. The preliminary results will be reported at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco next week . About 20,000 scientists are expected to attend this meeting, so I expect that the MSL session will be well attended.

I'm back on tactical operations today, this time as MAHLI/MARDI Payload Uplink Lead. The Sol 113 plan included further checkouts of the drill and other remote sensing, but no MAHLI or MARDI activities, so it was an easy day for me. Just as well, as I'm scrambling to catch up with work on other projects!

We've received much of the data acquired during the Thanksgiving holiday, including the Mastcam panorama of Yellowknife Bay, the near-term drive goal. These images will be used to pick specific targets for drilling. Meanwhile, a short "bump" of about 1 meter was planned on Sol 112, to allow arm contact on the rock under the rover's left front wheel. Planning is still "restricted" for a few sols until Mars and Earth time get back in synch, so we can't plan drive or arm activities every day because we need data showing the position of the rover/arm before planning new rover/arm motions.