Sols 3876-3879: Bumpy Road Ahead NASA Mars Exploration

Earth planning date: Friday June 30, 2023

Our last evaluation period on sols 3872 and 3873 was a “touch and go” plan: some contact science and other observations, followed by a push. We performed some imaging and DRT (Dust Removal Tool) brushing on the “Madero” bedrock target, to enable contact science using APXS. For some of our Mastcam images, we also move the arm around to reduce the shadow in our images. Our planned trip was more or less a success – we made it most of the way we had planned, despite crossing a small ditch. The current rocky terrain has been tricky for Curiosity and we often have small errors in our drives, but it’s all in the name of continuing to climb Mt. Sharp!

We also imaged the “Vesini” target to better observe the protruding veins in the bedrock. We performed ChemCam LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer) imaging which will give us elemental compositions of the vein target. The LIBS instrument works by producing powerful laser pulses that ablate ions on the surface of the sample and cause them to decay into light-emitting plasma. The rover can make spectroscopic observations of this plasma, which through spectral analysis is what allows us to understand what elements exist within the rock.

My tactical role is on the downlink assessment for the robotic arm, so this was a fun assessment day with lots of normal arm movements to allow for our imaging, DRT and contact science. Downlink evaluation refers to reviewing the data we receive from the rover to understand how well our planned tasks were actually performed on Mars. We have representatives from all the major downlink subsystems and a TDL (Tactical Downlink Lead) who brings our findings to the uplink team. Today our decision step (the data transmission we use to run our assessments) was delayed due to the scheduled DSN station not receiving Curiosity data, but we had enough information from the previous steps to run our assessments. Shortly after the downlink, we received our data via a retransmission from MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). Long live the orbiters!

Going into the uplink side of tactical operations, I will provide a summary of our planned science activities. On sol 3876, we are planning remote (non-contact) science activities using the Mastcam that will focus on the stereo documentation of nearby surface features and eroded bedrock. On sol 3877, a more remote science using Mastcam will occur; these will focus on continuous documentation of various rocks as well as tau (atmospheric optical depth) and aerosol measurements. Curiosity will also perform contact science, including brushing of DRT surfaces. On sol 3878, Curiosity will perform additional tau and aerosol measurements, as well as Mastcam documentation of the DRT target and the ChemCam’s former LIBS target.

On this sol, we also added some pictures of MAHLI wheels to our plan – this is an engineering task we perform on a regular basis to evaluate the condition of our wheels. This is crucial for us given the wear and tear we experience while traveling due to sharp rocks and rough terrain. MAHLI Full Wheel Imaging (FMWI) is achieved during a drive by rotating the wheels by a fixed amount for each imaging position so that the entire wheel condition can be seen well.

Overall, this has been an interesting tactical day, for both the downlink and uplink sides of the house. In my role on the robotic arm, I can evaluate the arm activities that enable our scientific observations, but it’s nice to remember that there’s also a lot of science we do with our remote instruments. We are excited to continue climbing Mt Sharp with the ultimate goal of drilling once we reach a suitable height.