Let's Drill: Sols 3742-3743

Let's Drill: Sols 3742-3743
by Keri Bean | Rover Planner Deputy Team Lead - JPL
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 13, 2023

Currently we are drilling the Dinira target! The scientists and engineers have been closely working together to adjust the drilling strategy to give us the best shot of a successful drill while also managing the wear and tear on our hardware. There is no guarantee it will work as Mars always loves to throw us curveballs, but we're giving it our best! It is also cloud season on Mars, so in addition to drilling, this plan is full of sky observations to look for clouds like the ones in this image from sol 3739.

We start out sol 3742 with some Navcam atmospheric observations followed by some ChemCam laser observations of Itu, which we used the robotic arm on over the weekend, and some long-distance ChemCam imaging as well. Once that wraps up, we drill! Drilling takes up a lot of the rover's power, so once we're done, the rover will take a nap until around sunset. At that point the rover will wake up and take some more atmospheric observations with Navcam and Mastcam. Once that wraps up, the rover will sleep most of the night, only waking up for the regularly scheduled communication windows.

On the morning of sol 3743, the rover will take more atmospheric and environmental observations with Navcam and Mastcam. ChemCam will use its laser on the target Yakarinta from the previous plan and also image our drill target Dinira. Mastcam will also image Dinira along with some long-distance imaging. The rover will spend most of the rest of the sol sleeping to recover power, although the rover will wake up twice, once mid-afternoon and once just after sunset, to take more Navcam and Mastcam atmospheric and environmental observations.

Detailed Photo Caption
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on February 9, 2023, Sol 3737 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 22:32:59 UTC.

When this image was obtained, the focus motor count position was 13020. This number indicates the internal position of the MAHLI lens at the time the image was acquired. This count also tells whether the dust cover was open or closed. Values between 0 and 6000 mean the dust cover was closed; values between 12500 and 16000 occur when the cover is open. For close-up images, the motor count can in some cases be used to estimate the distance between the MAHLI lens and target. For example, in-focus images obtained with the dust cover open for which the lens was 2.5 cm from the target have a motor count near 15270. If the lens is 5 cm from the target, the motor count is near 14360; if 7 cm, 13980; 10 cm, 13635; 15 cm, 13325; 20 cm, 13155; 25 cm, 13050; 30 cm, 12970. These correspond to image scales, in micrometers per pixel, of about 16, 25, 32, 42, 60, 77, 95, and 113.

Most images acquired by MAHLI in daylight use the sun as an illumination source. However, in some cases, MAHLI's two groups of white light LEDs and one group of longwave ultraviolet (UV) LEDs might be used to illuminate targets. When Curiosity acquired this image, the group 1 white light LEDs were off, the group 2 white light LEDs were off, and the ultraviolet (UV) LEDS were off.