One More Time… for Contact Science at Mammoth Lakes - Curiosity Rover Blog for Sols 4236-4238.

Earth planning date: Friday, July 5, 2024

Curiosity will drive away from the Mammoth Lakes drill location on the second sol of this three-sol weekend plan, but before she does, the team will take the opportunity for one last chance at contact science in this interesting region of the Gediz Vallis deposit. The team have noticed distinct troughs surrounding many of the bright-toned, pitted blocks in this area and have been wanting to get closer imaging with MAHLI before driving away. We were unable to do this with powdered Mammoth Lakes still in the drill stem but, having dumped any remaining material in the previous plan, Curiosity is free to use her arm again for contact science, and hence the MAHLI camera. We will take images from about 30 centimeters (about 12 inches) away from the block (“Glacier Notch”) with MAHLI. Unfortunately, “Glacier Notch” was too close to the rover to be able to fit the turret in for APXS to examine the chemistry, so we had to choose a different target: “Lake Ediza” is an example of gray material that rims the Mammoth Lakes drill block.

We also have one last chance for ChemCam and Mastcam in this immediate area. We will acquire ChemCam passive spectra of the Mammoth Lakes powdered material surrounding the drill hole (we collected APXS data and MAHLI images of the drill fines in the previous plan) and LIBS on a darker-toned target, “Zumwalt Meadow.” These targets will be documented by Mastcam. The long-distance imaging capabilities of ChemCam will also be utilized to examine nearby ridge and trough-like forms.

There are also a slew of atmospheric/environmental observations planned. Before we drive away, we will take advantage of being parked in the same spot while drilling to monitor any changes in the immediate environment by re-imaging a couple of areas previously captured on multiple occasions by Mastcam. Other atmospheric observations include a Navcam line-of-sight mosaic, Navcam dust devil, zenith, and suprahorizon movies, a ChemCam passive sky, and Mastcam taus.

After the drive, MARDI will image the terrain beneath the wheels and ChemCam will autonomously select a target to analyze with LIBS. Standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities round out the plan.

The team are looking forward to a new workspace when we return for planning on Monday, and continued investigation of the Gediz Vallis deposit.

Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4236-4238-one-more-time-for-contact-science-at-mammoth-lakes/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

And That’s (Nearly) a Wrap on Mammoth Lakes! - Curiosity Rover Blog for Sols 4234-4235.

Earth Planning Date: Wednesday, July 3, 2024

We received the data from our SAM analysis of the Mammoth Lakes sample late Monday afternoon. After chewing over the results, the team declared we are very happy with all of the analyses we’ve done with this sample, and we are ready to move on to greener pastures… er, redder rocks! This decision means that we will go ahead and clear out the drill assembly in today’s plan, and subsequently use the arm to collect MAHLI and APXS observations of the pile of drill tailings around the drill hole.

We’ll also have some time for remote sensing activities that use our mast-mounted instruments. Even though we’ve been parked at this location for several weeks, we’re still finding lots of things to look at! ChemCam will collect LIBS observations on a light-toned rock target named “Finger Peaks,” as well as a bumpy rock named “Glen Aulin.” We’ll also collect some additional Mastcam images of interesting features in the area, and a long-distance RMI mosaic of a target named “Rock Island Pass.” Several kinds of environmental monitoring activities will round out the plan.

It's been a very productive drill sampling campaign here at Mammoth Lakes, our first after crossing into Gediz Vallis channel, and I’m excited to start getting ready to move on. What’s around the corner in this fascinating area of Mt. Sharp?

Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4234-4235-and-thats-nearly-a-wrap-on-mammoth-lakes/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Going For a Ride, Anyone? - Curiosity Rover blog for Sols 4232-4233.

Earth planning date: Monday, July 1, 2024

Have you ever wondered what it might look like to ride along with the rover? Probably not as much as we have here on the planning team, where we are looking at the images on a daily basis. I always wish I could walk around there myself, or drive around in a vehicle, maybe. As you likely know, we don’t even get video, “just” images. But of course those images are stunning and the landscape is unique and – apart from being scientifically interesting – so very, very beautiful. And some cameras record images so often that it’s actually possible to create the impression of a movie. The front hazard camera is among them. And that can create a stunning impression of looking out of the front window! If you want to see that for yourself, you can! If you go to the NASA interactive tool called "Eyes on the Solar System" there is a Curiosity Rover feature that allows you to do just that: simulate a drive between waypoints and look out of the window, which is the front hazard camera. Here is the link to "Experience Curiosity." The drive there is a while back, but the landscape is just so fascinating, I can watch and rewatch that any number of times!

Now, after reminiscing about the past, what did we do today? First of all: change all plans we ever had. We don’t have – as scheduled – the SAM data on Earth just yet. But we have a good portion of the sample still in the drill, and if SAM gets their data and wants to do more analysis with that sample, then we can’t move the arm as we originally had planned. Why didn’t we consider that to begin with? Normally, there isn’t enough sample for all the analysis; you may have seen this blog post: "Sols 4118-4119: Can I Have a Second Serving, Please? Oh, Me Too!" But it’s the sample that dictates how much we get to begin with, and how much we need, which only becomes clear as the data come in. And there is an unusually lucky combination here that would avoid us having to drill a second hole for getting the second helping. Instead, we just sit here carefully holding the arm still so we do not lose sample. That saves a lot of rover resources. But then, once we had settled how we adjust to keeping our current position, we also learnt that the uplink time might shift from the original slot we had been allocated to a later one… And all of this with a pretty new-to-the-role Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) chair (me) and a similarly new Geology and Mineralogy theme group science lead. Well, we managed, with lots of help from the great team around us.

Those sudden-change planning days are so tricky because there is so much more to remember. It’s not, "This is what we came to do...,” and it had been carefully pre-planned, and it is all in the notes. Instead, the pre-planning preparation doesn’t fit the new reality anymore, and all that work has to be redone. So we have to do all the pre-planning work, and the actual planning work, and sometimes also account for some “if… then…” scenarios in the same amount of time we usually have to do the planning on the basis of all the pre-planning work.

Sounds stressful? Yes, I can tell you it is!

Once we had changed all the skeleton plans, the team got very excited about the extra time. This is such an interesting area, there are rocks that are almost white, there are darker rocks, very interesting sand features with beautiful ripples, so much to look at! Mars has much to offer here, so the team got to work swiftly and the plan filled up with a great set of observations. ChemCam used LIBS on the target "Tower Peak," which is one of those white-ish rocks, and on "Quarry Peak." Mastcam delivers all the pictures to go along with these two activities and gets its own science, too. These are mainly so-called "change detection" images, where the same area is pictured repeatedly to see what particles might move in the time between the two images. ChemCam uses its long-distance imaging capability to add to the stunning images they are getting from faraway rocks. They have two mosaics on a target called "Edge Bench." There is also a lot of atmospheric science in the plan; looking for dust devils and the opacity of the atmosphere are just two examples. REMS and DAN are also active throughout, to assess the wind, and the water underground, respectively. And as if that weren’t enough, CheMin also performs another night of analysis. We get to uplink a full plan, and we’ll see what the data say and what decisions we’ll make for next Wednesday.

Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4232-4233-going-for-a-ride-anyone/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

A Powerful Balancing Act - Curiosity Rover blog for Sols 4226-4228.

Earth planning date: Tuesday, June 25, 2024

As documented in a previous blog last week, we continue to juggle power constraints as we focus on analyzing our newest drilled sample on Mars: “Mammoth Lakes 2.” Today, the star of the show is a planned dropoff to SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite) and evolved gas analysis of the drill sample. This activity requires significant power so the team had to be judicious in planning other science observations and balancing the power needs of the different activities.

While the team eagerly awaits the outcome of the SAM and CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction instrument) analyses of Mammoth Lakes 2, we continue to acquire other observations in this fascinating area that will assist in our interpretations of the mineralogical data. ChemCam (the Chemistry and Camera instrument) will fire its laser at the “Loch Leven” target to get more chemical data on a target that was previously analyzed by APXS (the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer). “Loch Leven” is an example of gray material that rims the Mammoth Lakes drill block. The remote imaging capabilities of the ChemCam instrument will also be utilized to acquire a mosaic of a nearby area with interesting lighter- and darker-toned patches within the exposed rocks. Mastcam (Mast camera, for color stills and video) will document the ChemCam “Loch Leven” target and image the Mammoth Lakes 2 drill hole and surrounding fines to monitor any changes resulting from wind. We will also acquire extensions to two previous Mastcam mosaics: “Camp Four” and “Falls Ridge.”

To continue monitoring atmospheric conditions, the team also planned a Navcam (grayscale, stereoscopic Navigation cameras) large dust devil survey and Mastcam tau observation, an overhead image to measure dust in the atmosphere above Curiosity. Standard DAN (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument), REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station), and RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector) activities round out the plan.

Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4226-4228-a-powerful-balancing-act/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Bayer reconstructed R-MastCam - NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

R-NavCam - Sol 4226 - NASA/JPL-Caltech. The SAM open port is in the center of the image

SAM = Sample Analysis at Mars

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a powerful set of three instruments onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover that work together to investigate the chemistry of the Martian surface and atmosphere within Gale Crater. SAM's measurements will help scientists better understand environmental conditions over time and assess whether Mars could support and preserve evidence of microbial life, either now or at some time in its past. Though SAM's instruments would fill a laboratory here on Earth, they have been miniaturized to roughly the size of a microwave oven in order to fit inside the Curiosity rover.

SAM's instrument suite consists of a Gas Chromatograph (GC), a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS), and a Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS), as well as systems that manipulate and process samples. SAM will analyze gases, either drawn directly from the atmosphere or extracted from regolith or powdered rock samples by heating or chemically treating the samples. SAM will search for and characterize organic and inorganic molecules important to life on Earth, as well as information about the chemistry of past and present Martian environments.

Bayer reconstructed R-MastCam - NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Sliding Down Horsetail Falls - Curiosity Rover blog for Sol 4225.

Earth planning date: Monday, June 24, 2024

This will be an important week for chemistry on our latest drill sample “Mammoth Lakes 2.” Curiosity’s primary goal today was a preconditioning of the SAM instrument in preparation for its chemical analysis. Due to the large amounts of power required by SAM, today’s science block was limited to one hour, although it grew a bit at the cost of next sol’s science allocation. Today’s planning only covers one sol (4225), as our usual Wednesday planning day will not have Deep Space Network availability. We will plan 3 sols on Tuesday as a result.

Over the weekend, the “Mammoth Lakes 2” drill sample was dropped off to CheMin for analysis. Mastcam change detection observations of “Walker Pass 2” and “Finch Lake” were begun and will complete on Sol 4225. Remote science on “Whitebark Pass,” “Quarry Peak,” “Broken Finger Peak,” and “Shout of Relief Pass” completed successfully. On Sol 4225, the focus for remote science was a ChemCam laser spectroscopic characterization and Mastcam imaging of “Horsetail Falls,” an area near the edge of the “Whitebark Pass” workspace slab. The Navcam image below shows the rough surface of “Horsetail Falls” as a stripe of dark rubbly material near the top just right of center edge of the light colored “Whitebark Pass” slab. “Horsetail Falls” is an example of bedrock texture diversity. This target is named for an iconic 270 ft waterfall emerging from Agnew Lake and easily seen from the June Lake Loop road. “Shout of Relief Pass” honors the 11000 ft pass on the Sierra High Route trail which is a gateway to much easier terrain for the next 25 miles of the trail. All targets in this area of Mount Sharp are named after the Bishop geological quadrangle in the High Sierra and Owens Valley of California. ChemCam RMI will also image an 11x1 mosaic of the nearby channel floor where there are interesting color variations. Atmospheric observations in this science block consist of a dust devil survey. In the next plan, SAM will complete its initial analysis. Based on the SAM and CheMin results, the team will then decide whether to do more chemistry at this intriguing location or continue our drive up Mount Sharp.

Written by Deborah Padgett, Curiosity Operations Product Generation Subsystem Lead Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sol-4225-sliding-down-horsetail-falls/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

At the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity rover is a hole in a rock called 'Mammoth Lakes’ where the rover conducted its latest sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on June 19, 2024 (Sol 4219) of the rover's mission in Gale crater. Several preparatory activities with the drill preceded this operation, including a preload test on the stability of the target and the rover. The image was obtained by Curiosity's right-side mast camera on the same sol. The sample-collection hole is 0.63 inches (1.6 centimeters) in diameter, its official depth is not known at this time, but the size of the tailings (powdered rock) that surround the hole suggests the depth could be sufficiently deep enough to provide enough sample to feed into the rover's on-board instruments for detailed analysis. On the left of the hole is a bright patch where the rover had previously brushed the surface to remove the dust in order to collect data using the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS). The APXS is spectrometer mounted on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, and analyses the chemical element composition of a sample from scattered alpha particles.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The previous preload test failed - This one looks good as there is no apparent slippage of the bit.

MAHLI image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The Best Laid Plans… - Curiosity Rover blog for Sols 4214–4215

Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Planning today was defined by the decision about whether or not to drill at "Mammoth Lakes," the potential drill target that we selected on Monday. This decision is made based on the answer to two questions. First, does this location meet our science objectives? On Monday, we undertook some exploratory contact science (primarily with APXS) to answer this question by determining the likely elemental composition of Mammoth Lakes. Second, is it safe to drill here? Monday's plan also included a "preload test" to determine the safety of drilling by using the arm to place some pressure on Mammoth Lakes. We do these activities to measure the forces we expect on the arm while drilling and to see if the rock is stable enough to drill into. Although the APXS data indicated that this location meets our science objectives, the preload test was unsuccessful. Consequently, we had to pull the drill activities from the plan.

The drill activities had been scheduled to consume the entire first sol of this two sol plan. Unfortunately, the assessment of the preload data came too late to properly pivot from a drilling sol, so we were unable to plan any observations to replace the pulled drill activities. This means that Curiosity gets to take an unplanned vacation with just REMS and RAD observations on the first sol.

The second sol looks more like a typical plan, though we had to pull a number of drill-related activities here as well, so it's a bit emptier than usual. We begin with a Mastcam tau observation looking at the amount of dust in the atmosphere, then move on to a set of Mastcam and Navcam photometry images. These photometry observations take several images of the ground near the rover at different times of day to help us understand how sunlight scatters off of the rocks around us. We take a quick break from science to let the rover communicate with Earth through the Mars Relay Network, then get right back to work with ChemCam. LIBS will be used on the target "Golden Trout Lake," then we'll get an RMI mosaic of an area about 15 metres away from the rover.

Once ChemCam is done, we'll have our second set of Mastcam and Navcam photometry observations to complement those taken earlier in the sol. We'll then take Mastcam images of the Golden Trout Lake LIBS target, one of ChemCam's AEGIS targets, and some light-toned rocks at "Camp Four." Mastcam will also be monitoring "Walker Lake," a nearby patch of sand, to see how the wind is moving the sand around.

Today's plan wraps up with a collection of environmental science activities, including a dust devil survey, suprahorizon movie, and a line-of-sight mosaic of the north crater rim, as well as our usual suite of REMS, DAN, and RAD observations.

Despite the challenges of today, we're not giving up just yet. This isn't our first failed preload test, so the team is now looking for somewhere else in this area to drill. Hopefully we won't have the same difficulties as when we were trying to drill at the Marker Band, but nobody ever said that drilling a hole in a rock from over 270 million kilometres away was easy!

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4214-4215-the-best-laid-plans/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Assembled from 15 overlapping L-MastCam images using MS-ICE

Note the pair of DRT patches on the ground

DRT = Dust Removal Tool

The DRT is a rotary stainless steel wire brush, it's used to clean the surface of the rocks so they can use the APXS instrument directly on the surface, if they don't remove the dust it can skew the readings from the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS)

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

de-Bayered R-MastCam mosaic, that will eventually be part of larger mosaic, after the remaining images are downlinked. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

Make a nice screen save for a mobile phone :)

Just Out of Reach - Curiosity Rover blog for Sols 4209-4211

Earth planning date: Friday, June 7, 2024

Curiosity is going to have a busy 3-sol weekend. We have one more sol of intense contact science activities at this really beautiful and fascinating location before moving on. What makes this place so special? We are seeing a lot of variety in the rocks in terms of their colors and textures. The MAHLI image is an up-close view of the unusual coloration we’re seeing, which our scientists are busy investigating. In particular, the Whitebark Pass block just in front of us, which we have been investigating for several days, is highly complex. We are evaluating it as a potential drill target, but the spots we might drill are just a little too far away from our current location. Today I am the Tactical Uplink Lead for our planning, and planning today was almost as complex as our workspace!

On the first sol of the plan, Curiosity begins with a lot of imaging. We begin with the first of a series of change detection images on two sand targets (“Ten Lakes” and “Walker Lake”) so that we can characterize the current wind conditions. Then, ChemCam is doing a LIBS mosaic on Rodgers Pass, which is a target on Whitebark Pass. ChemCam also takes a passive mosaic on “Devils Postpile,” which is a another light-toned rock that we can compare to the similar-looking white rocks right in front of us, and a mosaic on the bright white stone field that is about 40m northwest of us. Mastcam takes large mosaics on Recess Peak, Devils Postpile, Whitebark Pass, and the white stones, before doing another round of the change detection images. After a nap, Curiosity wakes up to do a mid-afternoon set of change detection images before going back to sleep.

After the nap, Curiosity wakes up and does a set of late-afternoon change detection images before starting our contact science. This workspace is highly complex, making it challenging to get to all of the interesting science targets, but the Rover Planners managed to get it all into the plan. First, the DRT is used to brush the Grass Lakes target before we take a suite of MAHLI images on it. Next is a suite of images on the “Snow Lakes” target, which is another white rock in our workspace. On Snow Lakes we are investigating three different spots at 5cm above the rock to look at variation within it. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening, the rover will wake up to move the APXS to cover all of the contact science targets, Grass Lakes and the 3 spots on Snow Lakes.

Before handing over to the next sol’s plan, we do two more early morning change detection observations. On the second sol of the plan, we do additional imaging. ChemCam takes a LIBS mosaic of Rodgers Pass and a passive mosaic of “Gem Lakes,” another target on the Whitebark Pass block. After some Navcam atmospheric observations, a dust devil survey and deck monitoring, Mastcam follows up with an image of Rodgers Pass and another set of change detection images.

After the imaging is complete, we do a short forward drive to get more of the Whitebark Pass block into our workspace for additional contact science and evaluation as a potential drilling target. After the drive we will unstow the arm to get a better view of the new workspace as well as to save time in our next plan. After a bit of a nap, there is a MARDI image and Curiosity will go back to sleep.

On the last sol of the plan, Curiosity uses AEGIS to autonomously observe targets on Whitebark Pass after the drive. There are also some additional atmospheric images with Navcam, including a dust devil survey and suprahorizon movie. Just before handing over to Monday’s plan is a set of morning atmospheric observations, including a Mastcam solar tau, and Navcam zenith and suprahorizon movies.

Written by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4209-4211-just-out-of-reach/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A Taste of Rocky Road - Curiosity Rover blog for Sols 4207-4208

Earth planning date: Wednesday June 5, 2024

Curiosity was still at the ice cream shop for planning today, with the delicious feast of rock flavours still at arm's reach and begging to be sampled. In the previous plan, one such flavour, captured in today's blog image and perhaps most analogous to Rocky Road (not only given that Curiosity drove over this rock causing it to fracture, but also arguably the appearance as well), caught the eye of the operations team. There was desire to place APXS on this target, "Convict Lake," in the previous plan but the team ultimately did not have the image data available that would permit Curiosity to safely do so at a suitably close distance for APXS. Not to be discouraged, Monday's operations team pivoted and utilized part of the plan to acquire images of Convict Lake that would enable better APXS placement in today's plan.

The required images for targeting Convict Lake (aka Rocky Road, just with a chocolate to marshmallow ratio that would leave chocolate lovers heartbroken) with APXS arrived just in time for planning today. These images made it possible to focus on the central task of today's two-sol plan: place APXS close to Rocky Road and target two areas that are specifically more "marshmallow" and less on "chocolate" (sorry chocolate fans).

In addition to APXS on Convict Lake, ChemCam also targeted Convict Lake using its laser and imaging capabilities. MAHLI returned for seconds (and thirds!), only this time pairing yet more daytime images with others taken at night while utilizing its illumination capabilities. ChemCam and Mastcam also imaged "Petes Col" and "Buckeye Ridge," with Mastcam additionally imaging "Camp Four," as well as "Ten Lakes" and "Walker Lake" a number of times over the course of the two-sol plan.

I for one am very excited about the particular offerings at his specific shop and what we may ultimately learn from our sampling. I, like APXS, may just have two scoops of ice cream tonight myself, perhaps even following in MAHLI's footsteps by doing so after the sun has set when nobody else is watching (we've all done it, let's be honest). Unfortunately, I do not have Rocky Road, and I think I missed my chance to have watermelon (don't knock it until you try it!).

Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University

Source (with all the links and the original raw image): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4207-4208-a-taste-of-rocky-road/

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

6 overlapping MAHLI images assembled using MS-ICE - Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

You can find this small rock on the sol 4200 post a few days ago.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

49 Bayer reconstructed frames from the L-MastCam assembled in MS-ICE. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

Sol 4200 post-drive - captured by Curiosity's L-NavCam (cropped / rotated mosaic)