We checked out a broken white rock in the workspace with APXS, MAHLI, and ChemCam's laser spectrometer and finished up imaging a sandy area we've kept an eye on during conjunction to see if we could catch any wind motion, before taking a small drive to our drill location about 2 meters away (about 6 feet).
This location may look familiar - our next drill will be only a few centimeters away from "Nevado Sajama," which we drilled back in November. The reason we've returned here is to do a rare SAM experiment the instrument's last container of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (or TMAH, for less of a mouthful).
TMAH is a chemical that we can mix with our sample from Nevado Sajama to help identify any organic molecules. SAM had only two containers of TMAH (the first of which we used almost six years ago), so we want to be very certain that everything will go well with this experiment. As a result, we did a rehearsal of the handoff of the sample to SAM in Wednesday's plan, before we drill this weekend.
The TMAH experiment takes up a lot of Curiosity's energy, so there isn't a ton to spare for other science activities. Luckily, we've spent a lot of time in this area and have collected plenty of images of our surroundings. Because of that, we've used our little bit of extra time in the second half of the week for environmental observations. We're well into the dusty season now, so we're keeping an eye on dust both near (looking out for dust devils) and far (keeping track of how much dust is in the crater and wider atmosphere).
Related Links
Atmospheric Science - York University
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
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