MARS: CURIOSITY u krateru GALE Vol II.

Sols 1402-1404: A juicy weekend plan

15 July 2016


It was a slow morning as we anxiously awaited our downlink at 11am this morning… and then we put together a hefty weekend plan.  We’re in late slide sols this week, so planning has been starting later to wait for critical images to come down.  I’m on duty as GSTL today, and we knew it would be a big plan going in to the weekend.  Once we confirmed that the ~26 m drive went well on Sol 1401, our first task was to evaluate the local bedrock and select a target for contact science.  We selected a target named “Uku” for ChemCam, Mastcam, MAHLI and APXS activities to assess the texture and composition of the Murray formation.  We also planned a ChemCam observation on the target “Songo,” a disturbed block which looks more red than some of the surrounding rocks.  The plan also includes some Mastcam mosaics of the “Bimbe” blocky deposit to see if we want to pursue some additional observations there next week.  Then we had to see if these activities would fit with an already full weekend plan.  On the first and third sols we’re planning to do some environmental monitoring observations coordinated with observations from the MAVEN spacecraft.  This will give us a great dataset from the ground looking up, and from orbit looking down.  As if the plan wasn’t busy enough, we’re also planning some MAHLI imaging of the CheMin inlet, and a SAM geochronology experiment.  Not surprisingly, this is a very power-hungry plan, so we had to trim down some activities during the SOWG meeting.  But we managed to get almost everything into the plan, and have set ourselves up for the possibility of more contact science on Monday.  Should be a fun weekend in Gale crater!
By Lauren Edgar
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
--Lauren is a Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the MSL science team.

July 15, 2016
RELEASE 16-077

NASA's Next Mars Rover Progresses Toward 2020 Launch






http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-next-mars-rover-progresses-toward-2020-launch

sol 1405

sol 1405...moja gruba ocjena trenutne pozicije (koristim osnovnu mapu - a. Phil Stooke!)

Ovo iznad je svakako zanimljivo za geologe.
Ja to nisam, ali sam se s ovakvim stvarima susretao u profesionalnom životu. 
Kamen ispod u sredini mi pari na pješčenjak...desno i lijevo od njega mi izgleda
kao nešto između breče i konglomerata...("fault breccia") ...

Sol 1405-1408: Bimbe Conglomerates

20 July 2016

After a busy weekend plan, we are back to “restricted” sols this week, planning two days at a time. Monday’s planning for sols 1405-1406 started off with a discussion of whether we wanted to do some brief contact science before driving, or just drive straight for the block deposit called “Bimbe”.
In the end, we decided to keep the contact science in the plan, so sol 1405 included some MAHLI imaging of the target “Guri”. Mastcam had a multispectral observation of Guri as well as “Galo” to look for evidence of hematite. Mastcam also had an observation of an outcrop of possible conglomerate rock. ChemCam had measurements of the bedrock targets “Cela” and “Dala”.
After that we drove toward Bimbe. On sol 1406, we had a Navcam atmospheric observation and a ChemCam AEGIS target. I also advocated for a long-distance RMI mosaic on sol 1406 to make up for the one that was lost when the rover went into safe mode, but the orientation of the rover after the drive made it difficult so it ended up being pulled. (It would have caused ChemCam to slew past the path of the sun in the sky while focused, and we like to avoid any risk of pointing the telescope at the sun). So I’ll have to advocate for that observation some other time.
The sol 1406 drive went perfectly, so this morning we found ourselves in an awesome place to study the blocks and conglomerates at “Bimbe”. Sol 1407 starts with ChemCam observations of the targets “Lucala”, “Cabamba”, and “Bungo”, followed by a Mastcam stereo mosaic of the Bimbe rocks. MAHLI then has several observations of the workspace and a closer look at the target “Sonneblom”, and APXS has an overnight observation of Sonneblom.
On Sol 1408, we have a morning block of atmospheric observations from NavCam and Mastcam, followed by a Mastcam multispectral observation of the target “Tumba” and stereo mosaics of the southern part of Bimbe as well as some rocks in an area called “Balombo”. ChemCam will also observe Sonneblom and Balombo.
by Ryan Anderson
-Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

Sols 1409-1411: Finishing up at Bimbe

22 July 2016

For the weekend plan, we have a bunch more observations of the interesting blocky deposit “Bimbe”. Sol 1409 starts off with a couple of Mastcam images: one of the target “Seeis” and another of the AEGIS target from Sol 1406. Mastcam also has a mosaic to provide more context for the Bimbe blocks. After that, ChemCam has observations of the targets “Seeheim”, “Wilhelmstal”, “Oranjemund”, and “Seeis”. MAHLI then will observe several Bimbe targets, and APXS will analyze two targets: “Funda” and “Zambezi”.
On Sol 1410, ChemCam has an observation of the target “Mariental” with support from Mastcam. After that, we drive and do the usual post-drive imaging. On Sol 1411, Mastcam has an observation of the rover deck to watch for dust and sand that end up on top of the rover. Originally the plan also had the RMI mosaic that I’ve been trying to acquire as well, but it had to be pulled from the plan yet again to save on data volume. I am starting to think this observation is cursed! I’ll have to try again next week.
by Ryan Anderson
-Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

Ipak se radi o konglomeratu. Veći komadi kamenja su uključeni slučajno,
prilkom kotrljanja biz ovu nizbrdicu...
Fosili? Siguran sam da nasino oko sokolovo i to istražuje, ali neće reć..  

sol 1410...prevoženo  58,7 m prema JZ.