A Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Touch-And-Go: Sols 4130-4131

A Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Touch-And-Go: Sols 4130-4131
by Alex Innanen | York University
Pasadena, CA (JPL) Mar 19, 2024

Earth planning date: Monday, March 18, 2024: It was a fairly calm planning day after a few weeks of activity at Mineral King, with a familiar touch-and-go plan. That's not the only thing that's back to normal - ENV has ended our dust storm watch as dust activity has calmed down to seasonal levels. We even have a (slightly hazy) view of the crater rim again (see above)!

After leaving Mineral King behind we were greeted by a new workspace for the first time in almost 30 sols. For the "touch" part of the touch-and-go, APXS and MAHLI will be getting up close with bedrock target "Tunnel View." MAHLI will also be examining "Cardinal Mountain," a set of dark veins in another block.

While not getting quite as close as MAHLI and APXS, Mastcam and ChemCam are also taking advantage of the workspace with LIBS on "Ireland Lake" (appropriately named for the day after St Patrick's Day!), a ChemCam mosaic of "Fascination Turret," and Mastcam mosaics of the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge and "Koontz Pinnacle." On the ENV side, we're rounding out the sol with an image of the rover deck to track any potential movement from wind, and a couple of observations to monitor the decreasing dust. Then it's time to go - off towards Fascination Turret.

On our second sol, after the drive, we have our regular untargeted science block that will be given over to a ChemCam AEGIS activity, another deck monitoring observation, a line of sight to the crater rim, and a dust devil movie. After that Curiosity gets to take a well deserved nap for the rest of the plan.

Backstage: Quick Change: Sols 4127-4130
by Emma Harris, Graduate Student at Natural History Museum
Earth planning date: Friday, March 15, 2024: Just prior to planning we found out the drilling attempt on Mineral King 3 unfortunately didn't reach a depth suitable to collect samples for analysis. So, in a manner very similar to a quick-change backstage at the theatre, we altered our plan of action just minutes prior to planning. Instead of sending the drilled sample for analysis like we were able to do for Mineral King, Curiosity is driving away. Our incredible rover planners had already figured out where the rover was going to drive next, so it was down to the science team to figure out how to merge the science observations into the new plan.

On the first 2 sols of this plan, prior to driving away, APXS will take measurements on the shallow drill attempt at 'Mineral King 3,' as there are some drill tailings present. ChemCam has packed the plan with activities including the final LIBS observations in this workspace on some nodular rocks of interest 'Wishorn Reservoir' and 'Diamond Mesa.' ChemCam will then take an RMI mosaic of a sand trough named 'Centre Basin' near the rover, as well as two long distance RMI mosaics of 'Texoli,' and 'Dragtooth' buttes.

Mastcam will take the standard documentation images on the ChemCam LIBS observations, as well as a final change detection image of 'Florence Peak,' a sand ripple in the workspace we have been monitoring for a few weeks to see how much it moves over time.

Mastcam also have some larger mosaics planned including extensions of previously imaged areas including the drilling location 'Mineral King,' as well as targets 'Consultation Lake' and 'Cottonwood Pass.' During this plan we also have a range of environmental monitoring activities: Mastcam will be used for a sky survey, and Navcam will be searching for dust devils and will be used to take a suprahorizon movie.

Curiosity will then drive closer to 'Fascination Turret,' part of the Gediz Vallis Ridge to inspect an area of geologic interest to the team. When the rover arrives at our new workspace, it will take a Navcam mosaic, and a MAHLI image of the wheels. We then instruct the rover to automatically pick a ChemCam LIBS target to make the most of the science time and give us some preliminary data to analyse when we come into planning on Monday. These types of planning days, although often hectic, show the power of pre-planning and highlight all the work that happens backstage on this efficient rover team.