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Sol 4159-4160: The first Martian Sol with a fruitful return
NASA’s Curiosity rover continues to advance along the edge of the upper reaches of the Gediz Valley Ridge.
Earth Planning Date: Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Curiosity continues to follow the edge of the upper ridge of the Gediz Valley, investigating the fractured bedrock in our workspace and acquiring images of the ridge’s sediments as the rover heads south.
Today’s 2-sol program focused on DRT, contact science, and driving on the first sol, followed by non-target remote sensing on the second sol. The team had to make some decisions at the beginning of planning about whether to drive on the first or second sol of the program, and how that would impact the upcoming weekend activities. It turned out that the team was able to complete all of the required contact science and remote sensing activities on the first sol in addition to driving, which meant we would be able to download more information about where the drive ended to better inform weekend planning. The weekend program provided opportunities for a lot of great contact science, so having this extra data saved was very helpful in planning.
This means that the first Martian day of the program is already fully loaded! The program begins with a DRT campaign to expose new surface on the bedrock target “Tilden Lake” and then study its composition via APXS integration. The Geology Thematic Group then plans several hours of remote sensing activities, including ChemCam LIBS on the bedrock target “Curry Village”, which has a similar “dragon scale” texture (or “tire tracks”) to what we have observed in previous work areas. This large remote sensing block also includes ChemCam long-range RMI mosaics to assess the stratigraphy of the Gediz Vallis Ridge and the Kukenan Hills in the distance. These long-range RMI images reveal a great deal of detail about distant targets, such as the clast diversity of the Gediz Vallis Ridge shown above.
The program also includes a series of Mastcam campaigns to characterize local textures, sedimentary structures, dark rocks, and sandy aeolian bedforms (called transverse aeolian ridges, aka TARs) in nearby troughs. The Environmental Theme Group also plans activities to monitor fine-grained movement on the rover deck, search for dust devils, and monitor atmospheric dust. After completing this large remote sensing mission, Curiosity will image contact science targets using MAHLI and then continue driving south. The second Martian day includes non-target activities such as autonomously selected ChemCam AEGIS targets, additional Navcam deck monitoring, and Navcam line-of-sight observations. After the drive, we will conduct post-drive imaging in preparation for the next program.
Looking forward to seeing what other surprises our next workspace will reveal!
By Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center
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