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2 min learn

Sols 4323-4324: Surfin’ Our Manner out of the Channel

A picture from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, trying again on the western fringe of the Gediz Vallis deposit (high left) and the channel wall within the sulfate unit with unconsolidated sand/soil deposits within the foreground. This picture was taken by Curiosity’s Left Navigation Digital camera on Sol 4321 — Martian day 4,321 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Oct. 2, 2024, at 02:13:27 UTC.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024

As a member of the group tasked with organizing our marketing campaign to analyze the Gediz Vallis channel and deposit (informally generally known as the Channel Surfers), I used to be just a little unhappy this morning to see that our drive had efficiently taken us out of the channel, again onto the magnesium sulfate-bearing unit, into which the channel is incised. Our long-anticipated investigation of the channel has confirmed fruitful: Curiosity made the primary definitive detection of elemental sulfur on Mars, and we have now examined a wide range of intriguing lithologies and relationships inside the deposit over the past 4.5 months. It has been an thrilling time, and I’ve significantly loved driving this wave with my fellow Channel Surfers — an ideal crew! Now to make sense of all of the improbable information we have now collected.

We’re not utterly completed trying on the channel and deposits although. We will probably be driving parallel to the western margin for some time to facilitate comparisons with what we noticed from the east. Tosol we are going to picture two areas of curiosity inside the Gediz Vallis channel from our present vantage level with Mastcam and ChemCam long-distance RMI. However again to the sulfate unit — the crew deliberate plenty of actions to doc the return to the sulfate unit. These embrace APXS and MAHLI of the nodular bedrock instantly in entrance of the rover (“Sub Dome”), ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam of one other bedrock block (“Vert Misplaced Grove”), and Mastcam of the resistant bedrock ridge instantly adjoining to the Gediz Vallis channel (“Muah Mountain”).

As soon as the drive of about 25 meters (about 82 toes) hopefully executes efficiently, Curiosity will look down and picture the terrain between her entrance wheels with MARDI, purchase ChemCam LIBS on an autonomously chosen goal within the workspace, after which carry out a sequence of atmospheric and environmental observations. These embrace a Mastcam tau to measure mud within the ambiance, Navcam mud satan and suprahorizon motion pictures, and a Navcam line-of-sight statement. The plan is rounded out with DAN, RAD, and REMS actions.

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

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