The Top of Vera Rubin Ridge Part 2, Site 67-73, sol 1944-2297, 24 Jan 2018-22 Jan 2019 Options

[PaulH51]

Looks like Curiosity celebrated its landing anniversary with a little bump towards its next drill site during Sol 2132 (Aug 5, 2018)

[elakdawalla]

Just wondering if they have done any analysis with the Curiosity test rig to determine the likely Mohs scale hardness of these rocks?

They've definitely done analysis of how the drill percussion level required to penetrate a rock compares to the hardness of the rock (not Mohs, that's for mineral crystals, there'll be some other way to quantify hardness) -- but it hasn't been published as far as I know, and that analysis won't hold for the new FED process.

[PaulH51]

Clearing skies in Gale Crater:
Sol 2132 (Site 72/1316) end-of-drive L-NavCam, roughly assembled in MS ICE, no additional image processing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

[serpens]

They've definitely done analysis of how the drill percussion level required to penetrate a rock compares to the hardness of the rock (not Mohs, that's for mineral crystals, there'll be some other way to quantify hardness)

Yeah I mentioned before that when status reports talk about how hard the rock is the brain goes into auto and thinks Moh's scale. Pavlov would be proud. I guess that for this mudstone the bonding strength of the cement would be the real criterion

[PaulH51]

L-MastCam workspace acquired on Sol 2132, features the 'Stoer' drill site.
Roughly assembled in MS ICE, without additional processing except for the annotations (4272x2709px)

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 2128.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the view on Sol 2129.

Jan van Driel

[serpens]

Pre load test underway. Crossed fingers for drill.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 2132.

Jan van Driel

[PaulH51]

Sol 2132 ML drive direction mosaic? Roughly assembled in MS ICE, no additional processing except annotations. Looks like they maybe planning to drive South providing the drill attempt at 'Stoer' is successful

[PaulH51]

Sol 2134: Robotic arm workout animation, using the DRT, MAHLI, Drill and APXS at 'Stoer'. However the best part is seeing the shadow from the arm and turret dancing across the workspace.

[djellison]

Seeing a shadow at all is awesome - we've basically not seen one since the dust storm started! It means the skies are clearing and more of the illumination is coming directly from the sun rather than the diffuse sky glow!

[PaulH51]

Tried to upload a 2Mb L-MastCam photo mosaic that extends the sol 2132 workspace mosaic with another 6 frames from 2134, I can not complete the upload for whatever reason, so here is a link to the mosaic loaded on Reddit : https://i.redd.it/fhimw42mv1f11.jpg

Stitched in MS ICE, no additional processing

[PaulH51]

Third time looks like a charm at the Pettegrove Point member drill target called 'Stoer'
Edit1: Added a NavCam
Edit2, Red/Cyan anaglyph added

[serpens]

The variation on hardness or strength from the last three drilling operations seems to indicate a significant change on lithology with height across the Pettegrove Point member. This variation in hardness doesn't bode well for drilling in the Jura member. Out of interest, does anyone know the criteria used to define the three Vera Rubin Ridge members?