Earth planning date: Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024
Curiosity has returned to “McDonald Mosey,” a block within Gediz Vallis that we first observed about a month within the past (as seen within the above Entrance Hazcam image). The block presentations some involving zonation — the distribution of textures and colours into diversified areas, or zones. We’re hoping that by studying the effectively-exposed relationships between white, gray, and tan field fabric at this deliver that we’ll be ready to greater realize the same relationships that we’ve observed in diversified areas. The force over the weekend received us reduction to McDonald Mosey, however possibly one step too some distance. We realized that the correct space to seem these zones is straight under the rover, so today’s concept entails contact science and a instant bump to station the rover for even more science the following day.
This day used to be a uncommon one-sol concept, to myth for the U.S. holiday the day gone by. I was on shift as the Long Term Planner and it used to be a pretty straightforward day after we established the correct areas for contact science. The concept begins with a DRT and APXS on the central fragment of the slab, at a target named “Erin Lake.” Then we now get got a remote sensing block, which begins with some environmental monitoring to seem for dirt devils, measure atmospheric opacity, and show screen the shuffle of fines on the rover deck. The Geology Theme community planned ChemCam LIBS on the darker gray rim of this block at “Paris Lake,” along with a ChemCam passive commentary on an racy murky drift block nearby. There’s also a long distance RMI mosaic to assess the yardang unit greater on Mount Exciting, and a Mastcam mosaic to review the textures in a row of mountainous clasts. Later within the afternoon, Curiosity will salvage MAHLI photos of Erin Lake and one more target, “Image Puzzle,” which captures the white, gray, and tan zones. Then Curiosity will accept as true with discontinuance a instant force reduction about 1 meter (about 3.3 feet) to station a white and grey clast in our workspace for even more contact science the following day.
Will McDonald Mosey be the fundamental to figuring out the zonation observed in blocks within the middle of this space? Quit tuned!
Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Heart
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