“Mount Mercou,” in hindsight: NASA’s Mars exploration program

Sol 3081 will be very busy for Curiosity. The rover is still close to the transition between the “Glasgow” member and the sulfate-carrying unit; as this is an important geological transition, the scientific team is trying to get as much data as possible before moving away.

First, the rover plans to do a “touch and go,” making contacts and orienting remote science before leaving. First, Curiosity will exercise arms, making APXS and MALHI observations of “Puymangou,” a dark spot on a mother rock slab in front of the rover. Science will test whether the color difference represents a difference in composition with respect to nearby parent rock. For the Rover Planners (of which I am one today), this is a challenging goal because it is small and a bit high compared to the surrounding parts of the rock. We must also avoid nearby sand pockets trapped by the surface roughness of the rock. After arm activities, Curiosity will keep the arm ready to prepare for driving.

Before leaving, there is a set of specific scientific observations with Mastcam. In addition to a small 3×3 mosaic of the scientific contact lens, we will take a large stereo mosaic of “Mont Mercou” from the southwest to get more views of the sedimentary structures of the ridge. In addition to all the images we have taken from other places on Mont Mercou, this last set will allow us to build a complete 3D model. At this same time prior to driving, ChemCam will also make a passive observation of the sky as part of our environmental suite.

Then we say goodbye to Mont Mercou and begin our route, about 30 meters to the south-southwest. The terrain in this area is quite rocky and has patches of sand, which is another challenge for Rover Planners. Curiosity will traverse some of the sharper rocks and larger sandstains to land at a high point that should provide a good visor for planning the next unit, as well as landing on a base rock to allow for contact science during the head flat week. The Rover Planners (and Curiosity wheels) are definitely hoping to be further south, where the terrain is more benign and our vehicles will no longer have to look like a slalom track.

After the unit, we will take some pictures to support the next unit, as well as some additional ChemCam observations about the sky and its calibration targets to continue monitoring the health of the instrument. Near sunset, we will do another set of cloud observations with Mastcam and Navcam in hopes of getting another spectacular image of the Martian cloudy sky and a MARDI image of the ground beneath the rover. Finally, in the early hours of the next morning, we will make some more environmental observations, including a film about the dust devil and a film about the horizon.

In the second sun of the plane, we make more ambient atmospheric observations of the sun, the horizon, more dust devil movies, as well as some images of twilight Mastcam.