MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 Options

[elakdawalla]

Curiosity has put more than 400 meters on the odometer and tosol (sol 56) she bumped up to a sand drift that we now know (via Twitter) is named Rocknest and will be the site of the first sample grab. In last week's press briefing, John Grotzinger warned that we will be here for "what seems like a very long time," 2-3 weeks. They will have to run several samples through the SA-SPaH (Sample Acquisition, Processing and Handling subsystem, pronounced "Saw-spa") and in particular CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In situ Martian Rock Analysis, pronounced "chimera") in order to "clean" it of any remaining Earthly contamination with good Mars dirt before they deliver the first sample to SAM or Chemin. So this seems like a good place to start a new thread.

As usual, discuss stuff that happened through sol 56 in the previous thread.

[ngunn]

I was referring to the small rise in the middle of the basin at the lower right there. I think (though I'm not 100 percent sure) that it's visible as the middle-distance plateau almost at eye level, just to the right of Dumgoyne. The northern 'shore' of the basin that you delineate is also in view to the left of Dumgoyne.