Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle
Earth planning date: Monday, June 2, 2025
Now that Curiosity has spent a number of sols gathering close-up measurements of the rocks within the outer fringe of the boxwork-forming geologic unit, the workforce has determined that it is time to acquire a drill pattern. The geochemical measurements by APXS and ChemCam have proven modifications since we crossed over from the earlier layered sulfate unit, however we will not work out the mineralogy from these information alone. As we have usually seen earlier than on Mars, the identical chemical components can crystallize into a variety of completely different mineral assemblages. That is much more the case in sedimentary rocks similar to we’re driving by means of, through which completely different grains in our rocks could have shaped in numerous instances and locations. This additionally implies that once we do get our mineral information, these minerals will inform us lots concerning the historical past of those new-to-us rocks.
On board Curiosity, that mineral evaluation is the job of the CheMin instrument, which makes use of X-ray diffraction to identify minerals. CheMin shines a slender X-ray beam by means of a powdered pattern as a way to generate the diffraction sample, which implies that it wants a drilled pattern. So the workforce at present was busy in search of a drillable spot. Sadly the rover’s drill attain from at present’s parking spot included solely rocks that have been too fractured or had an excessive amount of particles sitting on them to be thought-about more likely to produce drilled pattern, so we should transfer, or “bump,” a minimum of yet another time earlier than progressing to the drill preload take a look at, which is the following step in drilling.
Within the meantime, we’re taking extra measurements to know the vary of compositions that may be discovered on this rock layer. Mud removing (DRT) + APXS + LIBS + MAHLI have been all deliberate for goal “Holcomb Valley,” whereas a brief distance away a second DRT/APXS/MAHLI measurement was deliberate for “Santa Ysabel Valley” and in one other path, a second LIBS for “Stough Saddle.” One long-distance ChemCam distant imaging mosaic was deliberate to cowl a boxwork construction off within the distance. Mastcam had a comparatively gentle day of imaging, with simply a few small mosaics overlaying a close-by trough function, and offering context for the RMI of the boxwork construction, along with documenting the 2 LIBS targets. The trendy Mars setting was additionally recorded with a few motion pictures to search for dust-devil exercise, a measurement of atmospheric opacity, and a pair of suprahorizon observations to search for clouds, plus the same old passive observations by DAN and REMS to observe the neutron setting, temperature, and humidity.
I will be on rover planning Wednesday as Geology and Mineralogy Science Theme Lead and searching ahead to what we discover — hopefully some drillable boxwork-unit bedrock!