Curiosity continues to advance along the edge of the upper Geddies Wallis Ridge, examining fractured bedrock in our study area and acquiring images of sediments on the ridge as the rover moves south.

Today’s two salt plans focused on DRT, contact science and driving in the first salt, followed by targetless remote sensing in the second salt. The team had to make some decisions early in the planning as to whether they would ride in phase one or phase two of this plan and how this would impact next weekend.

As it turned out, the team was able to place all the necessary contact science and remote sensing activities in the first salt, as well as the propulsion in the first salt; This means we can communicate more information about our finish line. – a place behind the wheel where you can better plan your weekend. Weekend plans provide opportunities for a lot of great communication science, so having this extra planning data will be very useful.

This means the first salt of this plan is fully loaded! The plan begins with DRT work to open a new surface targeting the “Tilden Lake” bedrock, and then integrating APXS to investigate its composition. The geology theme group then planned several hours of remote sensing, including ChemCam LIBS, on the Curry Village key target, which had a “dragon scale” (or “tire tracks”) texture similar to what we observed in the previous study area. .

This large remote sensing unit also includes an RMI long-range ChemCam mosaic to assess stratigraphy in the Geddies Wallis Range and remote Cookenan Bay. These long-range RMI images show many details about distant targets, such as various wrecks on the Geddies Wallis Ridge, as seen in the image above.

The plan also includes a series of Mastcam events to characterize local textures, sedimentary structures, dark rocks and sandy eolian bedforms (transverse eolian ridges, also known as TARs) in the adjacent trough. The environmental thematic group also planned activities to monitor the movement of small parts on the rover’s deck, search for dust devils, and monitor atmospheric dust.

Following this large remote sensing unit, Curiosity will use MAHLI to image the contact science target and then continue heading south. The second solution includes non-targeting activities such as an autonomously selected ChemCam AEGIS target, additional Navcam deck monitoring, and line-of-sight Navcam observations. After the ride, we will take post-ride photos to prepare for our next plan.