Earth preparation date: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024
Curiosity is driving along the western edge of the Gediz Vallis channel, heading for a excellent vantage point before turning westward and leaving the channel behind to checkout the canyons beyond. The contact science for “Chuck Pass” on sol 4341 and inreverse 30-meter drive (about 98 feet) on sol 4342 finished effectively.
This earlymorning, preparation began 2 hours lateron than typical. At the end of each rover strategy is a baton pass including Curiosity endingup its activities from the previous strategy, transferring its obtained information to a Mars-orbiting relay satellite death over Gale Crater, and having that satellite sendout this information to the Deep Space Network on Earth. This dataset is vital to our group’s choices on Curiosity’s next activities. It is not constantly possible for us to get our important information transmitted before the chosen preparation shift start time of 8 a.m. This leads to what we call a “late slide,” when our preparation days start and end lateron than normal.
Today’s shift started as the “decisional downlink” showedup simply inthepast 10 a.m. PDT. The science preparation group leapt into action as the information rolled in, finished prepares for 2 sols of science activities, then had to rapidly modification those prepares entirely as the Rover Planners browsing brand-new images from the decisional downlink figuredout that the position of Curiosity’s wheels after the drive would not assistance release of its arm, gettingridof the prepared usage of APXS, MAHLI, and the DRT on intriguing rocks in the workspace. However, the science group was able to pivot rapidly and develop an enthusiastic two-sol science strategy for Curiosity with the other science instruments.