Ready for Communication Science – NASA Mars Exploration

Land planning date: Monday, January 8, 2024

With a successful retrograde bounce over the weekend, Curiosity is now in a position to perform contact science on a flat mass of dark-colored rock in its workspace and continue investigating the composition and texture of the dark bands we've been observing from orbit. Our two-sun plan begins with a negative DAN point, followed by a scan of the “Chagoopa” contact flag target and a brief APXS integration on the target. Next, we have our morning science block with ChemCam observations of “Chagoopa”, the “Painted Lady” target (an outcrop of broken bedrock with an interesting polygonal texture), and a long-distance RMI of Milestone Peak (a deposit with large boulders). Mastcam has planned observations of “Chagoopa”, “Saddlerock Lake” (exposed cut surface with possible vent), and “Rock Creek” (broken rock), as well as AEGIS activity. Mastcam will then image the duster, and MAHLI will acquire images of “Chagoopa” from a distance of 25cm, 5cm and 2cm.

After the morning science block, Curiosity will drive about 16 meters to some polygonal fractured material, and MARDI will conduct a video activity to document the fractures. Next, we have post-drive photography to help Rover planners, define the objectives of the next plan, and systematically document layers and soils along the way. MARDI will acquire a single image at twilight to close out the first sol of this plan.

The second sol begins with another negative DAN mass and untargeted science masses in the morning. This science cluster includes the bedrock ChemCam AEGIS, Navcam line-of-sight monitoring, and Navcam Dust Devil movie. Planned contact flag observations of the dark-colored rock target in our workspace will inform a decision on whether or not rock in this area can be drilled again.