Curiosity’s Weekend: Staying Put, But Keeping Busy with Science and Curiosity.

On this weekend, we decided to stay at the same location we’ve been in all week for our activities. Although we were excited to explore new terrain, we had plenty of interesting science targets to keep us busy. On the first day of our plan (Sol 1961), we scheduled a variety of ChemCam observations including LIBS measurements on bedrock targets “Glenfinnan” and “Skara Brae”, a long-distance RMI image of Mount Sharp, and a passive measurement of “Bloodstone Hill”. Additionally, we planned to take Mastcam images to document the LIBS targets and for change detection.

When we spend an extended amount of time in one location, we like to take repeat Mastcam images of the same target area across multiple sols to look for any changes or movement in the field of view. To wrap up the day, we planned to capture a Navcam movie to look for dust devils in the area. In the evening, we intended to take MAHLI nighttime images of Glenfinnan and Skara Brae to get a closer look at the small-scale features within the rocks after some dust had been cleared by our earlier observations.

On Sol 1962, our plan was to drive to our next VRR location, take post-drive images and prepare for an exciting week ahead with contact and remote science observations. With a full schedule of activities and science observations planned, we were looking forward