ChemCam
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4597-4599: Wide Open Spaces
Written by Michelle Minitti, MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator, Framework Earth planning date: Friday, July 11, 2025 Imagine this vista as the view out your office window to start your workday. Your natural tendency would be to grab your camera and photograph as much of the view as possible. Curiosity was lucky enough to find herself in this situation today after…
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sol 4588: Ridges and troughs
Written by Lucy Thompson, APXS Collaborator and Senior Research Scientist at the University of New Brunswick, CanadaEarth planning date: Wednesday, July 2, 2025As we traverse the boxwork terrain, we are encountering a series of more resistant ridges/bedrock patches, and areas that are more rubbly and tend to form lower relief polygonal or trough-like features. We came into planning this morning…
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NASA
Sols 4511-4512: Low energy after a big weekend?
Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center Earth planning date: Monday, April 14, 2025 We all know the feeling: it’s Monday morning after a big weekend and you’re coming into the week wishing you’d had a little more time to rest and recharge. Well, Curiosity probably feels the same way today. Curiosity accomplished a lot over…
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NASA
Sols 4439-4440: A Lunar New Year on Mars
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 We’re planning sols 4439 and 4440 on the first day of the Lunar New Year here on Earth, and I’m the Geology/Mineralogy Science Theme Lead for today. The new year is a time for all kinds of abundance and good luck, and we are certainly lucky to be celebrating another new year on…
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NASA
Sols 4416-4417: New Year, New Clouds
Earth planning date: Monday, Jan. 6, 2025 After our marathon holiday plan, we’re easing back into the new year with a standard two-sol plan. We did arrive today to the news that the drive hadn’t made it as far as we wanted, but luckily the rover planners determined that we were still in a good position to do contact science…
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NASA
Sols 4338-4340: Decisions, Decisions
Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 18, 2024 On sol 4338, we have a science block planned as well as some arm activities. Our science activities include a ChemCam observation of “Donkey Lake.” This is a bedrock target with exposed laminations. In geology, lamination is a sequence of small-scale, embedded fine layers of sedimentary rock. Next, we will do an RMI…
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NASA
Sols 4336-4337: Where the Streets Have No Name
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 Curiosity continues to drive along the western edge of the upper Gediz Vallis channel. After exiting the channel a few weeks ago, we turned north to image the “back side” of the deposits that we investigated on the eastern side before the channel crossing. As a member of the Channel Surfers working group, we believe…
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NASA
Sols 4311–4313: A Weekend of Engineering Curiosity
Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 Today, we planned for 3 sols over the weekend. On Sol 4311, we have a lot of science activities planned, including some ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the “Obelisk” target. These activities will allow our instruments to gather data about rock features of interest within the rover workspace, including a LIBS analysis which…
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NASA
Sols 4304-4006: 12 Years, 42 Drill Holes, and Now… 1 Million ChemCam Shots!
Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 Today, I need to talk about ChemCam, our laser and imaging instrument on the top of Curiosity’s mast. It one of the instruments in the “head” that gives Curiosity that cute look as if it were looking around tilting its head down to the rocks at the rover’s wheels. On Monday, 19th August the…
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NASA
Sols 4291-4293: Fairview Dome, the Sequel
Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 30, 2024 Our backwards drive to “McDonald Pass” got hung up on the steep slopes of “Fairview Dome,” but unlike a lot of movie sequels, our inadvertent return visit to Fairview Dome was at least as good as the original. We took full advantage of the chance to investigate this bedrock rise within Gediz Vallis…
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