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Souls 4393-4395: Weekend work at the base of Taxoli Butte
Land planning date: Friday, December 13, 2024
Curiosity continues to make great progress on Mount Sharp bedrock and will spend the weekend investigating the northern base of the “Texoli” butte. Back on Earth, the science team enjoyed sweeping views of nearby “Wilkerson” Butte and “Gold Mesa” as they dug into the workspace in front of us to create a heavy to-do list for our roving geologists on Mars. picked up
Today’s rocks on the rover’s wheels consisted of dusty, yellow bedrock with a range of textures. We used the Dust Removal Tool (DRT), MAHLI, and APXS instruments to characterize the light, smooth bedrock on “Calabasas Peak” and the slightly darker, rough bedrock on “Triunfo Canyon.” The ChemCam team used Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyze the rough bedrock texture on “Chilao” and the vein cutting through the bedrock on “Ojai” and Mastcam provided supporting documentation images of each target.
The Mastcam team brings together a variety of images and mosaics from the workspace and beyond. Two stereo mosaics documented the network of fractures in the bedrock at “Fern Dale” while a stereo mosaic of “Rich’s Garden” will be used to visualize potential faults in the rocks. A few single-frame images of the troughs in the workspace will be used to investigate the active surface processes. Further afield, Mastcam created a stereo mosaic of “Jawbone Canyon” to image potential aeolian waves, and supported a CamCam long-range RMI image in the drive direction of “Grant Lake.” Finally, CamCam planned a long-range RMI image to get a closer look at the structures inside Gold Mesa.
Curiosity will travel 44 meters (about 144 feet) west over the weekend as we continue to close in on interesting objects. Boxwork structures. Finally, the environmental group completed the project with activities including cloud observations, dust devil monitoring, and surveys of atmospheric dust concentrations.
Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, planetary geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
