In our last bit of science from on top of the flat topographically raised region known as the “Pediment,” we wanted to chemically characterize some small nodular bedrock targets that we’ve been noticing across the landscape. The original plan was for a “touch-and-go,” which would mean a quick APXS integration over a target of interest before driving away to our next location. However, while today’s workspace contained plenty of great nodular targets, most were just outside of the reach of the rover’s arm! In addition, the timing of the short APXS integration was not ideal to collect clean data. So, instead, the “quaran-team” selected a small nodule that was within the arm’s reach, and planned overnight integrations on three nearby locations that will allow us to separate the composition of the nodule from the bedrock. We will then plan to drive away in tomorrow’s plan as opposed to doing so today. To accompany this APXS integration, we’ve also identified both nodular and “typical” bedrock targets to characterize using the ChemCam instrument, which will provide additional chemical analyses of the surface of the Pediment before dropping back into the Clay-Bearing Unit.

Following a drive away from our Edinburgh drill site on Wednesday, Curiosity has a brand-new parking spot for this weekend’s science activities. The drive put us right in front of a nice patch of sand ripples, visible smack dab in the middle of the Navcam image above. We’ll devote several of our weekend activities to investigating targets around this little patch of sand.

We have a "soliday" this weekend, which we have every few weeks to allow the Earth and Mars schedules to sync back up. That means our weekend plan is only two sols instead of the three.

On the first sol of the weekend, Sol 2731, we have a hefty 2-hour science block during which Curiosity will perform a suite of ChemCam, Mastcam, and Navcam observations. We’ll use the ChemCam laser to probe targets “The Borders,” “Dryhope,” and “Chalifornia.” The Borders and Chalifornia are bedrock targets, and, as the name suggests, Dryhope is a soil target. We’ll use Mastcam to take documentation images of the ChemCam targets as well as an additional large mosaic to document the stratigraphy of the Greenheugh pediment as we continue our drive down the pediment. To finish out the science block, we’ll use Navcam and Mastcam to search for dust devils and monitor the atmosphere. In the afternoon and overnight, we’ll perform contact science (including the MAHLI and APXS instruments) on the “Auld Reekie” soil target.

On the second sol, Sol 2732, Curiosity will wake up first thing in the morning to perform some additional atmospheric observations, including Mastcam tau and crater rim extinction images as well as a Navcam line-of-sight image and cloud-monitoring movies. After our observations we’ll take a series of MAHLI images of Curiosity’s wheels before getting back on the road to continue our drive down off the Greenheugh pediment. Following our drive, we’ll take our standard post-drive images.

Many of us on Earth are being especially diligent lately about washing our hands for at least 20 seconds after touching a new surface. On Mars, Curiosity is used to doing something a little bit similar, but for a very different reason: to prevent cross-contamination between samples taken at different locations. Of course, the lack of water and soap prevents the rover from “washing,” but we still have to make sure the rover’s instruments stay as clean as possible after touching a new surface. On Monday’s plan, we placed the rover’s arm over the drill tailings from our Edinburgh drill hole to study them with APXS and MAHLI (see image above). In today’s plan, we’ll retract the arm from that position and stow it so we can drive away. During that process, we swing the turret back-and-forth to shake off and remove any bits of sand or dust that may have been clinging to APXS so when we next use it, APXS only measures materials at the new location and nothing that came with us from Edinburgh.

After stowing the arm today, ChemCam will target the inside wall of the drill hole as well as take a long-distance mosaic of Gediz Vallis and the Greenheugh Pediment. Then we’ll conduct a short drive to a nearby patch of soil that we hope to study over the weekend. On the second sol of the plan, we’ll have a ChemCam AEGIS activity (where ChemCam picks its own targets!), search for dust devils, and monitor the dust levels in the atmosphere. Tomorrow is the equinox on Mars and spring begins for the southern hemisphere. This is also when the dust storm season (generally the second half of the martian year) begins. Last Mars year (2018), we had a global dust storm and will be carefully watching to see if another develops this year!

In the weekend plan the remainder of the “Edinburgh” drill sample was dumped, which means that we are almost finished with activities in this drill location. This two-sol plan is filled with activities to characterize the dump pile and drill hole as well as remote sensing observations.

APXS and MAHLI have plenty of targets in this plan. APXS attempted to document the new dump pile in the weekend plan, but that observation was offset from the intended target because we did not know exactly where the dump pile would be. Now that we have images of the dump pile, we know its specific location and APXS will redo that measurement. Additionally, APXS will observe the drill hole tailings. MAHLI will be used to document the dump pile and the drill hole tailings. In this plan MAHLI will also take nighttime images of the drill hole walls and of the CheMin inlet to make sure all the sample made it through the inlet.

For remote sensing, ChemCam will take an RMI observation looking towards Gediz Vallis. From our current location on the “Greenheugh” pediment we have a spectacular view looking up towards Mount Sharp and “Gediz Vallis,” so this observation is part of a series of ChemCam RMIs documenting areas that will be obscured once we descend off the pediment. ChemCam will also target the Edinburgh drill hole and tailings in this plan.

Mastcam will be retaking a portion of the “Hilltop” mosaic. The instrument’s arm ended up "waving at us" in the original mosaic, pictured above, which is fun (Hi, Curiosity!) but we decided to retake those frames so we can see the bedrock that the arm obscured.

We will also be finishing up a Navcam/Mastcam photometry experiment in this plan. The goal of this experiment is to model how light scatters off the surface. While Curiosity has been sitting here at the Edinburgh drill site, Navcam and Mastcam have been taking images of the same locations at multiple times of day to learn how light scatters from the surface at different sun angles. The final Navcam images were taken in this plan.

Finally, there will be several change detection observations to constrain the amount of wind activity in this area. The first observation is with Mastcam of a nearby ripple field to search for any changes in the ripples. The second is with MARDI because this instrument has been staring at the same patch of ground underneath the rover so if anything moved because of the wind or drill activities, MARDI is ready to observe the evidence.

This two-sol plan should finish up the activities at the Edinburgh drill site, and we expect to drive away on Wednesday!

Curiosity is still at the Edinburgh drill site as part of a mini campaign to sample the Greenheugh pediment. We’re finishing drill-related analyses and activities, and the three-sol weekend plan is focused on dumping sample from the drill bit assembly and documenting the dump pile and drill tailings.

I was the Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) Chair today and it was a busy but fun day of remote operations. The plan kicks off with a ChemCam observation of the Edinburgh drill hole (as seen in the above ChemCam RMI image) to get some extra data points to characterize the drill site, as well as the “Calders Sandstone” bedrock target, and Mastcam documentation. Then Curiosity will dump the sample and document the pile with Mastcam and MAHLI, followed by APXS. At the end of the first sol the rover will pause and take in the view at twilight – including a Navcam image of the horizon in which Earth and Venus should be visible! Then it’s back to work with an overnight APXS integration on the dump pile. On the second sol Curiosity will take a ChemCam long distance RMI mosaic of the pediment capping unit to assess the stratigraphy and sedimentary structures exposed on the flank of Gediz Vallis. Additional ChemCam RMI mosaics will be acquired on the third sol, followed by a Mastcam multispectral observation of the dump pile, and Mastcam documentation of some interesting dark layers in the mound stratigraphy. Throughout the plan there are also a number of the Mastcam and Navcam observations to complete a photometry experiment. The rover will also continue to monitor atmospheric activity with a Navcam line of sight observation, dust devil survey, and Mastcam tau observation, and a whole suite of activities early on the morning of Sol 2727. While everyone is staying safe at home, it’s especially nice to hear so many voices from our team members and to look forward to exciting new data from Mars!

The primary focus of our two-sol plan is to prepare the drill bit assembly to dump the remaining “Edinburgh” drilled sample (portion to exhaustion), so that it can be analyzed in the upcoming weekend plan with the APXS and MAHLI instruments for chemistry and texture respectively. Sample has successfully been delivered to both Curiosity’s internal CheMin and SAM instruments, and we are awaiting the results of the mineralogy and volatile/isotope chemistry, with the 3^rd night of CheMin analysis in this plan. The Edinburgh sample represents the blocky, dark grey sandstone, pediment-capping unit that overlies the Murray mudstone. The science team are interested to see how the mineralogy and chemistry might differ between these two rocks types, given that they were likely deposited in different environments.

While Curiosity has been parked here on the pediment, analyzing the Edinburgh sample, we have been acquiring a number of ChemCam RMI long distance mosaics to document the area around us; in particular, to look at features associated with a “washboard” pattern observed from orbit. In the plan tosol we are acquiring two more of these RMI mosaics. ChemCam will also be used in its active LIBS mode to continue documenting compositional variability of the bedrock immediately surrounding the rover, analyzing the “Phlanaid Mars” and “Kinesswood Sandstone” targets. Mastcam will take a supporting documentation image of the ChemCam LIBS targets, as well as an image of the Edinburgh drill hole and surrounding drill fines to ensure that it is safe for MAHLI to image them with the lens cover open in the next plan.

Environmental activities in this plan include two Navcam dust devil survey observations and a movie, Mastcam basic tau and crater rim extinction observations, and a Mastcam Phobos video. Standard REMS, RAD and DAN passive activities are also planned.

As the APXS strategic planner today, it was a relatively quiet day, but the APXS team are eager to analyze the Edinburgh drilled powder that we plan to dump from the rover at the weekend! I will be busy on Friday helping to plan this measurement and thinking ahead to APXS observations we would like to make once we drive away from here.

The priority for the sol 2720 plan is to drop off and analyze a sample of the Edinburgh drill hole in SAM, but we’ve got plenty of remote sensing in the plan too, much of it building on our previous observations from this spot. We start each morning with a Navcam dust devil survey. On Sol 2720, Mastcam has a stereo mosaic of a nearby hilltop, extending a previous mosaic to look for changes in the weathering behavior of the pediment cap rock. This is followed by ChemCam observations of two sandstone bedrock targets named “Tron Kirk” and “Dunedin” and extensions of two long-distance RMI mosaics of the “washboard” surface of the pediment. Mastcam will document the ChemCam targets, and then take some pictures of the SAM inlet before and after sample dropoff. Navcam also has an 8-frame movie toward the south to watch for atmospheric activity like clouds. APXS then has an overnight atmospheric observation (yes, APXS can measure the atmosphere too!).

On Sol 2721, ChemCam has a vertical measurement inside the Edinburgh drill hole. After Mastcam documents that observation, it will add some frames to its own mosaic of the washboard pattern on the pediment. Navcam will then take a picture toward the north to study the amount of dust in the atmosphere. The rest of sol 2721 will be taken up by SAM’s analysis of the Edinburgh sample.

Curiosity’s drill campaigns are like poetry in fixed verse. A predefined set of activities has to occur in a sequence: first Curiosity must assess an outcrop for drilling, then drill and extract a sample, then process and characterize the sample, then deliver the sample to the CheMin instrument for analysis, then prepare the SAM instrument, then deliver the sample to SAM for analysis, and finally dump the sample on the ground.

All of this happens over a period of a couple weeks, and when we are planning the science observations for any given sol, we need to work within the scaffolding of the drill campaign sequence. But like poets crafting sonnets in iambic pentameter, we find freedom within the fixed structure to create something new.

Such is the case for today’s plan, covering sols 2717-2719: as Curiosity proceeds with the Edinburgh drill campaign, we use free blocks of time here and there to explore the landscape. The main structure of this three-sol plan includes a second analysis of the Edinburgh drill sample with CheMin and the preconditioning of the SAM instrument to prepare for an Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) observation next week.

As for the other science observations:

As the Edinburgh drill campaign continues, and the CheMin instrument awaits the first taste of the bedrock in front of us, the science team focuses on filling out Greenheugh pediment observations as well as responding to early results we've already received.

Having multiple observations of the same rocks and expanding datasets to cover more area helps put high value results from the drill campaign in context. We don't get to do this too often, except when we stop for a few sols. Also, it makes sense to keep the other instruments busy and get the most science we can while we wait for instruments like SAM and CheMin to process data, which usually takes a few days (it's complicated!).

On sol 2715, after finding some interesting chemistry on target "Eaglesham," it would've been a shame if we didn't take another look! A ChemCam observation called "Eaglesham2" takes a vertical sample over the crossbedding (rock layers that intersect by angle) in that rock. There will also be ChemCam shots into the drill hole to sample ever so slightly below the surface, including an RMI Z-stack (makes a very clear image).

Mastcam will takes some images of these targets too. There's great interest to document the washboard-like pattern we see from orbit on the Greenheugh pediment as well as the prominent ridge on top of it, since we have such a unique and amazing view. ChemCam will take more long distance RMIs of the washboard pattern and the interface between the ridge and the washboard, which we call "Skelkirkshire." Skelkirkshire shows layers of boulders and probable light-toned sandstones, which tells us something about how the ridge formed. CheMin will get its first Edinburgh sample portion. DAN, RAD, and REMS makes observations as well.

On Sol 2716, we get a chance to image Mars' dreadful moon Deimos with Mastcam and extend previously taken mosaics across the Greenheugh pediment ridge and surrounding bedrock in front of us. Atmospheric observations include Mastcam tau (measures dust in the martian air), crater rim extinction, Navcam super horizon cloud search, and REMS observations for temperatures, winds, and pressure.

Just like our rover instruments, stay safe and healthy!

The drill successfully dug into the “Edinburgh” target over the weekend, the first sandstone the drill has attempted to conquer since the engineering team hacked a new drilling method back in 2018.

As any good student would at the end of a test, it is now time for Curiosity to check her work! Curiosity will drop three small portions of rock powder from the drill onto various rover surfaces, and then Mastcam will image those portions. This is a good way to check the sample in the drill before it is delivered to CheMin and SAM.

Portion characterization is the main goal of the plan, but the science team added other observations to the plan. ChemCam hit a slight hiccup on the last sol of the weekend plan, but one that was straightforward to recover from at the start of the plan today.

ChemCam will first recover observations from the weekend including a passive spectral observation of the Edinburgh drill tailings piled up around the drill hole, and a long distance RMI mosaic across the “Greenheugh pediment” target “Three Lochs.” ChemCam will then get an analysis from its titanium calibration target. Navcam will acquire a mosaic covering the top of the pediment and Mt. Sharp to enable the team to target future Mastcam and ChemCam observations as far as our rover eyes can see.

The skies got plenty of attention today, as well. Navcam will acquire movies looking for dust devils at two different times of day, as well as images to consistently monitor the amount of dust in the atmosphere. Navcam will also throw in a movie looking for clouds for good measure!