Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Could 28, 2025
We got here in early this morning and discovered that a part of Tuesday’s plan didn’t execute on Mars because of a short lived concern with the arm. We collected APXS knowledge on the goal “Palo Verde Mountains,” however weren’t in a position to take the corresponding MAHLI pictures or drive away. So it was an easy choice for the planning staff immediately to choose up the place we left off yesterday, giving ourselves a second probability to gather the MAHLI statement after which full the identical 29.5-meter drive to the west (about 97 ft) that we had deliberate on Tuesday.
We love making lemonade from lemons when issues don’t go precisely as anticipated in rover tactical planning, and immediately was no exception. Since we’re sticking round for a bit bit longer, the science staff determined to gather further mosaics of spectacular close by options, together with a 15×2 Mastcam mosaic of the “Mishe Mokwa” hill and an 11×2 Mastcam mosaic of fractures close to “Lake Cachuma.” We’re additionally having one other go at taking the epically lengthy, long-distance RMI mosaic of a crater 91 kilometers away from Curiosity (virtually 57 miles) that we deliberate yesterday, and we’re enjoying round with the main target settings to see if we will get a sharper picture.
The staff additionally had time for a second RMI mosaic of our very well-imaged “Texoli” butte, and a ChemCam LIBS statement on a goal named “Santa Monica Bay,” which is simply above the “Sisquoc River” goal we noticed yesterday on the bumpy rock in our workspace. As traditional, we will even proceed to observe the atmosphere round us with REMS, RAD, Navcam, and Mastcam observations.