A Rover-Sized Boulder Sols 3532-3533

Curiosity is back on the road, but some interesting boulders caught our attention and led to a short detour. The team was already planning to divert to the southwest to get some imaging of nearby cliffs, but the large boulders that have tumbled down provide a tantalizing glimpse of what's to come.

Boulders like the large one shown in the above Navcam image (now named "Ilha Novo Destino") can help inform our understanding of the upcoming stratigraphy, so we thought it was worth a trip to this "new island destination" for the weekend.

But first, there's plenty of science to be done in our workspace before we get to the boulders. Today's two-sol plan focused on DRT, MAHLI, and APXS on the bedrock right in front of the rover, including the interesting vein and fracture patterns shown in the foreground of the above Navcam image.

Today we planned 3 MAHLI imaging targets and 2 APXS targets to assess the sedimentary textures and composition of bedrock and veins. We also planned ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam multispectral observations to further characterize this outcrop. Mastcam will also be used to document the field of boulders to help plan weekend activities, and ChemCam will acquire a long distance RMI mosaic to characterize the stratigraphy.

The ENV theme group planned several environmental monitoring activities to search for dust devils and monitor dust and clouds in the atmosphere. On the second sol, Curiosity will drive to a parking spot right in front of these boulders to prepare for the weekend plan. Can't wait to see this rover-sized boulder up close!

Related Links
Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

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Moving Right Along - Sol 3531
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 14, 2022
Since we finished up with our "Avanavero" drill activities yesterday, we're officially back on the Martian road to the layered sulfate-bearing unit! Today we just planned a single sol's worth of activities, and filled the day with contact science, remote sensing, and a 50m+ drive. The remote sensing and contact science activities include a MAHLI and ChemCam LIBS observation of a bedrock target named "Uai Uai," as well as Mastcam regular and multispectral images of a vein-rich rock target named "La ... read more