Mining Into Mineral King: Sols 4110-4111

Mining Into Mineral King: Sols 4110-4111

by Ashley Stroupe |Mission Ops – JPL

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 26, 2024

The planning team came in after the weekend to see another beautiful Martian drill hole on the target Mineral King! Mineral King is named after a silver mining district in Sequoia National Park, California. This was a pretty odd-looking rock, with the big overhanging ledges and several different colors, so we were all pretty anxious to see the drilling results. Fortunately, the rock was strong enough to drill without the rock layers breaking apart. However, it was also hard enough to slow down our drill progress and require percussion near the end.

As a result, this hole is on the shallow side, meaning we may not have collected as much sample to analyze. However, we have had successful sample analyses after similarly shallow drill holes (like Edinburgh back on sol 2710) and our portion characterization does show we have sample, so the team is optimistic and going forward with dropping off sample to CheMin today. We prefer to do the sample drop-off as close as possible to when we’ll be doing the CheMin analysis, which is at night during cooler temperatures. While we are waiting for the sun to go down we are doing some targeted science and imaging.

First thing, ChemCam is taking a LIBS observation of the “Mount Sill” target, which is a dark-toned platy layer on the same rock as Mineral King. ChemCam is also taking both LIBS and passive observations on the Mineral King drill tailings and drill hole wall. Curiosity will then turn attention to the atmosphere, taking a Navcam line-of-site image of the atmospheric dust within the crater and a large dust devil survey. Before taking a nap, there is a Navcam image of the CheMin inlet prior to dropping off sample. After the nap, we wake up to do a high-temperature diagnostic with the M100 filter wheel, followed by a Mastcam solar tau and another Navcam line-of-sight image to look at dust in the atmosphere.

After another nap, Curiosity wakes up in the evening to drop off some drill sample to CheMin. We are dropping off two sample “portions” to CheMin, which involves rotating the drill bit backwards for less than a second. Overnight, CheMin will analyze the sample and then dump it out. We should have results of the analysis by planning on Friday, when we will find out if Mineral King will live up to its name (though we probably won’t find any actual silver) and we’ll decide if we want to proceed to drop sample to SAM.

On the second sol of the plan, we read out the data from CheMin and do some more imaging and remote science. ChemCam takes a LIBS observation of the “South Guard” target, which is a gray-toned platy target also on the Mineral King rock, giving us the ability to compare the different colored areas. ChemCam also is taking a 40-frame RMI extension of the mosaic of Fascination Turret on the upper Gediz Vallis ridge.

Mastcam then takes ChemCam follow-up images, one of South Guard and Mount Sill and an 18-frame mosaic of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge RMI target. Mastcam also takes a 48-frame extension of the mosaic on Texoli, which is a butte that shows eroded sedimentary structures, and an observation on the Marker Band following up on a ChemCam observation from the weekend. Finally, we take the post-drop-off Navcam image of the CheMin inlet and a dust devil movie. For the rest of the sol, Curiosity gets to rest and recharge in preparation for hopefully doing SAM activities in the rest of the week.

Sols 4107-4109: Drilling Mineral King

by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at The Smithsonian

Earth planning date: Friday, February 23, 2024: The Curiosity rover remained parked on the Mt. Sharp bedrock with a beautiful view of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge as we embarked on a busy and exciting 3-sol planning day. With preliminary data in hand used to understand the composition and texture of the gray “Mineral King” rock in front of us, we decided to proceed with drilling at this location!

ChemCam and Mastcam teamed up to document the composition and texture of several rocks in the workspace starting with the “Mineral King” target before the start of the drilling activity. ChemCam also scheduled a Z-stack observation (i.e., multiple images over a range of focus settings) to further characterize the pre-drill surface. The team also selected the “Lilley Pass” target to investigate the knobby bedrock beneath “Mineral King,” and the nearby “Mather Pass” target to investigate a rock that appears similar in appearance and color to our selected drill target. Mastcam built two stereo mosaics for the weekend plan; one mosaic will document ground disturbances nearby, and the other will extend previous coverage of the “Mount Carillon” region to image the different types of cracks and breaks within the rocks.

Looking up and off into the distance, we have two ChemCam long distance RMI images in the weekend plan. One image will provide insight into the tantalizing rocks at the base of “Fascination Turret” in the upper Gediz Vallis ridge, and the other will get a glimpse behind us at landforms in the Marker Band Valley region. Rounding out these targeted activities is a ChemCam passive sky observation to survey the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.

Good luck with the plan, Curiosity. Rest assured that you have lots of Earthlings who will be thinking of you over the weekend!

Sols 4104-4106: Dark Band Drill Surprise

by Natalie Moore | Mission Ops – Malin Space Science Systems

Earth planning date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024: No time for Monday brain on a Tuesday! Following a four-day US holiday weekend, our Mars plans take place on Tuesday and Friday this week. Since I am scheduled for Mastcam operations all week, this morning I ran my trusty script telling me how much Mastcam data were downlinked from the weekend. Immediately there was a mystery: Saturday’s data downlinked just fine but Sunday’s data wasn’t showing up. Missing data could have many causes, but the two most likely are: something happened with the rover, or something happened with the data transmission between Mars and Earth.

Luckily it was quickly discovered to be the latter; our Payload Downlink Coordinator for today let us know that our morning downlink was halted because of Earth-weather conditions at the Deep Space Network station we tried to use. Despite not having the data right away, this is always good news because it means our commands all worked and the data is on its way to Earth. We were told the missing data would be available this afternoon at the earliest, so for planning we made do with the data we had.

We did get our Mastcam arm workspace images down from Sunday, though, and it showed a new location at a highly desired dark-toned rock layer. The weekend drive was successful! It was quickly determined our wheels were stable enough to unstow the arm and put weight on it (like for drilling), and since this is the nicest Gale crater terrain has been in a while the team quickly pivoted from driving away to staying here and trying to drill. This plan became our first of the “Mineral King” drill campaign.

We saved all the arm activities for the second sol, so we start sol 4104 with a remote science block including: ChemCam LIBS on “Mount Mallory,” Mastcam image of the LIBS attempt, and 20 Mastcam stereo frames of the terrain surrounding us. Navcam finishes off the block with some long dust devil and cloud movies, not only for science but also to make use of the battery charge while we can.

The second sol is run by the arm activities: a 7-image MAHLI mosaic of the Mineral King block from an angle to show the thickness of the dark layers, DRT on Mineral King with a full-MAHLI-suite of images on the dust-free area, a pre-load test of the drill bit on Mineral King to test the strength of the rock (the stronger the rock, the less likely it’ll fracture or shift), and finally APXS integrations in the evening over the dust-free Mineral King to gather mineral composition pre-drilling. The third sol is mainly a battery recharge sol, but we’re still planning a ChemCam LIBS on “Mount Carillon,” a Mastcam mono mosaic of the LIBS attempt and surrounding context, and many Navcam dust devil movies. If the pre-load test on Mineral King goes well, we might be drilling this weekend!

Moving “Inland” From Gediz Vallis Channel: Sols 4100-4103

by Abigail Fraeman | Planetary Geologist – JPL

Earth planning date: Friday, February 16, 2024: In this weekend’s plan, Curiosity will continue to support two sets of long-term science campaigns. First, we want to understand the processes that built Mt. Sharp’s sulfate-bearing (salty) unit, and what that can tell us about Mars’ past changing climate and habitability. Second, we also are trying to understand how Gediz Vallis channel formed, and by extension, what the “last gasps” of surface water in Gale crater might have been like. We’ve been hugging the edge of Gediz Vallis channel for the past few drives – getting as close as we can in order to image the rocks within the channel – but we had to turn ever so slightly east today, away from the channel, where the terrain is a little easier for Curiosity to navigate.

Wednesday’s southeastern drive placed us right at the edge of a “dark band” (as characterized in orbital data) of the sulfate-bearing unit. In addition to still collecting lots of images of Gediz Vallis channel, we’re also now on the hunt for another possible drill target that will help us continue to characterize the rocks in the sulfate-bearing unit. We’ll assess the textures and compositions of rocks in this and an upcoming dark band to help us determine whether there’s anything we’d like to sample.

We planned four sols today to cover the US holiday next Monday. The first sol of the plan is mainly devoted to getting ready for a SAM atmospheric observation that will take place just after midnight on the first sol and will measure methane in the Martian atmosphere. We’ll also have some remote sensing observations on the first sol, with ChemCam LIBS observations of dark bedrock in front of us (“Red Kaweah”) and Mastcam images of Gediz Vallis channel. Remote sensing will continue on the second sol of the plan, with more Mastcam observations and a ChemCam LIBS observation of “Muro Blanco,” a light-colored piece of bedrock.

MAHLI and APXS will get in on the science action on the sol as well, with observations of two targets on dark toned rocks in front of us named “Thunderbolt Peak” and “Tenderfoot Peak.” We’ll snag one more LIBS observation on the third sol of the plan on Tenderfoot Peak, then we’ll drive ~25 m to the south, towards a rock we are interested in assessing as a possible drill target. The fourth sol of the plan will be relatively quiet, with REMS observations to characterize the weather only. Mastcam, Navcam, RAD, and DAN observations will also occur throughout the plan to characterize the Martian environment.

With Love From Mars: Sols 4098-4099

by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University

Earth planning date: Wednesday, February 14, 2024: Here on Earth, it’s Valentine’s Day, and I’ve been thinking about our new workspace a bit like a box of chocolates. When we come to a new workspace, much like opening up a box of chocolates, there’s a lot to look at – different textures, different colours, different shapes – and you have to decide what you’re going to start with, what might be the tastiest, and what you may want to leave in the box. Sometimes, there’s things you know you like (I can never go wrong with a salted caramel), and sometimes there are new flavours to be discovered. Mars certainly gifted us with a great box of treats today, and the plan brings us familiar sights from sols past and new targets to sink our (metaphorical) teeth into.

One of these is our contact science target, “Horseshoe Meadows,” a section of bedrock (which you can see in the image, right above where “Curiosity” is written) that is redder than what we’ve been seeing recently. After APXS takes a look, we move into our main science block which starts with ChemCam LIBs on a different bedrock target, “Post Corral Creek.” ChemCam will then set its sights further afield to a familiar target, Fascination Turret, which Mastcam examined on Monday. Mastcam gets its own treats today, starting with two mosaics of the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge and an old friend, the Orinoco Butte, which has been a regular companion of Curiosity for many, many sols. Mastcam will also join ChemCam in imaging “Post Corral Creek.” The science block finishes up with a deck monitoring image. We’ve been taking these recently before and after every drive to see how the dust that collects on the rover deck changes because of things like driving or wind. After the science block, we return to Horseshoe Meadows with the DRT and MAHLI, and then it’s time to bid farewell to this workspace and drive away.

The sol doesn’t end there, though. After the drive we have another science block to sneak in some later afternoon environmental activities. These include a Mastcam observation and Navcam line of sight to look at dust in the atmosphere and a dust devil survey to look for dust being lifted from the ground as well as a cloud movie.

Our second sol only has one science block a little before noon which includes a ChemCam AEGIS activity, our post-drive deck monitoring, another cloud movie and a long dust devil movie. Once that’s wrapped up Curiosity will nap for the rest of the sol in preparation for a weekend plan, hopefully full of more treats from Mars.