Sol 833-834: New Results From The Murray Formation

The main excitement today was that, as the team was busy
planning for sols 833 and 834, NASA held a press conference to share some of
the results of our recent investigations in the Murray formation, in the
foothills of Mt. Sharp. The layered rocks that we have been observing tell the
story of a series of shallow lakes with small deltas formed by sediment
deposited from the crater rim. Check out the press
release for more details!

In the Sol 833-834 plan, we are planning to do three ChemCam
"Z-stack" observations of the target "Vaqueros" which looks like it might be a
white mineral-filled vein. Z-stack observations are when the instrument
collects data from the same location at several different focus positions. We are
planning Z-stacks with ChemCam’s black-and-white camera and the main
spectroscopy laser to make sure that we get good data from the target, and to
collect information to develop new focusing methods for ChemCam.

Later on sol 833, the high-resolution color camera on the
arm (MAHLI – Mars Hand Lens Imager) will collect some images of the fine
details of the layers in the Chinle outcrop, at targets called "Coachella" and "Tropico".
Then we will measure the chemical composition of Tropico with the APXS (Alpha
Particle X-Ray Spectroscopy) instrument on the arm.

On Sol 834, Navcam (the black and white Navigation cameras)
and Mastcam (the mast-mounted color science cameras) will take some atmospheric
observations to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere. By Ryan Anderson

--Ryan is a planetary scientist and developer at the USGS
Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL. Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.