Exploring Mt Sharp north of the dunes - Part 1: Beyond Pahrump Hills, Site 45-50, Sol 923-1147, March 12-October 28, 2015 Options

[PaulH51]

Sols 1136-1138: Drilling at “Greenhorn”. Mission Update from Lauren Edgar LINK

Unfortunately the Sol 1135 bundles were not uplinked due to a DSN issue, so the activities that we planned yesterday never made it onboard. However, that meant that Curiosity spent the day resting and recharging in time for a lot of great science this weekend.
Today’s 3-sol plan will recover most of the activities that were planned for Sol 1135, in addition to the main activity of a full drill hole on the “Greenhorn” target. On the first sol, Curiosity will acquire several ChemCam and Mastcam observations on the targets “Nisku,” “Skull Creek,” “Hawk Creek,” and “Opeche,” to investigate the variability in silica associated with these fracture zones. We’ll also take several Mastcam images to look for changes in fine-grained deposits to evaluate local winds. Overnight, we’ll use MAHLI to image the CheMin inlet in preparation for drilling activities. On the second sol, we’ll go for the full drill hole on “Greenhorn,” followed by MAHLI imaging of the drill hole. The third sol consists of several environmental monitoring activities to assess the composition and opacity of the atmosphere. We’ll also squeeze in some Mastcam observations of the “Big Sky” dump pile and drill tailings using all of the camera filters. The only activity that we won’t have time for is the SAM atmospheric methane detection, but we’re hoping to get that sometime next week. I’ll be on duty again on Monday, so I’m looking forward to seeing the results from the latest drill hole!

[PaulH51]

Drilling the Mini-Start Hole at Pilgrim (Animation) - Sol 1134 R-HazCam (5 frames)
Small format preview (600x298)

Flickr (full size 1024 x 557 pixels) LINK
Imgur (full size 1024 x 557 pixels) LINK

[Herobrine]

Sol 1137 drilling
Tiny-crop version:

Larger Crop (2.1 MiB)
Full Size (17.2 MiB)

[PaulH51]

2 of the ChemCam targets from Sol 1136 identified on 2 overlapping R-MastCam images. Targets located close to the fault near to the right rear wheel of the rover (RMI's re-sized to 60%)

Flickr Large 1024 x 868 LINK
Flickr Original 2058 x 1744 LINK
Imgur LINK

[PaulH51]

Mission update from Lauren Edgar - Sol 1139: Another successful drill hole on Mars LINK

Over the weekend Curiosity drilled another hole on Mars at the “Greenhorn” target. Everything went smoothly and we have another beautiful sample to analyze! Today’s plan is focused on transferring the sample to CheMin, followed by CheMin analysis of the drill sample. I was on duty as GSTL today, and we also planned several ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the drill hole and surrounding rocks. First we’ll acquire a ChemCam passive observation of the drill tailings, and take a number of RMI images of the drill hole to help with ChemCam targeting of the drill hole tomorrow. Then we’ll acquire ChemCam LIBS on the targets “Gypsy,” “Tumbleweed,” and “Wrangle” to assess the variability of silica associated with these fracture zones. We’ll also take a small Mastcam mosaic to document the ChemCam targets and the local topography, and a Mastcam and Navcam photometry experiment to characterize differences in lighting over the same region at different times of day. In the afternoon, the “Greenhorn” drill sample will be transferred, sieved, and dropped off to CheMin, and the sample will be analyzed by CheMin overnight. It will be interesting to see how this sample compares to the “Big Sky” target!

[algorithm]

The proverbial 'Black Hole' (Of the Calcuttan variety)

[PaulH51]

Nice anaglyph and great animations guys....

Latest from USGS: Zapping the drill hole wall - Mission Update from Ken Herkenhoff (Sol1140) LINK

The ChemCam RMI images of the drill hole planned yesterday were successfully acquired and received, and were used today to plan 2 parallel LIBS rasters down the hole. The additional LIBS raster should be useful in measuring variations in chemistry among individual sand grains and in detecting thin veins. ChemCam and Mastcam will also observe a target dubbed "Marshall" to see whether silica enrichment extends along other fractures near the rover. Finally the SAM methane experiment that was deferred due to an uplink problem last week is scheduled overnight between Sols 1140 and 1141. This experiment requires a significant amount of power, which will limit the activities that can be planned tomorrow.

EDIT
Greenhorn RMIs : Roughly stacked plus its 3D anaglyph, both created in Picolay

Flickr Original 2077 x 1117 LINK
Imgur Mirror : LINK

[PaulH51]

Dusty Rover... 9 Raw MAHLI's of the deck mounted UVS...

Flickr Original Size 4954 x 3970 pixels LINK
Imgur mirror LINK

[PaulH51]

Recharging batteries: Mission Update: Sol 1141 From Ken Herkenhoff LINK

There was a problem processing the latest data from MSL at the Deep Space Network station that received it, but the data are now available and confirm that the Sol 1140 activities completed successfully. As expected, the batteries need to be recharged after the SAM methane experiment, so Sol 1141 activities are limited to a few remote sensing activities. ChemCam and Mastcam will observe the Greenhorn drill tailings and another bedrock target, called "Fort Conrad." Besides some recurring observations, that's it for the Sol 1141 plan! The rover's batteries should be nearly fully charged for Sol 1142 activities.

[PaulH51]

A still frame from an animated GIF using three RMI frames acquired on sols 1140 & 1141 (Before & After the LIBS rasters down the hole at Greenhorn)

Flickr Animation 1034 x 1089 pixels LINK
Imgur Animation LINK

[neo56]

My take on Curiosity self-portait of sol 1126 at Big Sky:



And with a sky added on Gimp :

[neo56]

Here is an animation showing how dust is accumulating on Curiosity between sol 84 (1st selfie) and sol 1126 (last selfie):



Animation available in higher resolution here.

[PaulH51]

Sol 1141 NavCam red/cyan anaglyph looking WNW into Cut Bank Valley

Flickr 980 x 1074 LINK
Imgur mirror LINK

[eliBonora]

Sol 1132 1133 anaglyph



and holes compilation!



sol 1140


sol 1142

[algorithm]

The pictures showing the latest efforts at 'The Martian Swiss Cheese Workshops' have arrived from Sol1142.








Slides and a Powerpoint presentation from all of the workshops will be given once the final workshop has taken place on the higher slopes of Mount Sharp. (Seats are limited)