And now my brain wonders if there ever was snow falling, dancing, quietly, covering it all in white, a dusting first, then, even more until it's a white dream world? Wouldn't it have been great to stand there, on Mars, at that time? Well, that wouldn't just require a crewed spaceflight to Mars, it would also require time travel by ... like ... 4 billion years, back to a time when here on Earth there were just microbes. Well, before I write a science fiction piece here, I better get back to planning!
That planning was a little more eventful than what I would have liked, though, and required my full attention. I was Geo Science Team lead today. At the start of planning we were waiting for confirmation on a data transfer that got stuck somewhere in traffic on its way to Mars. Whenever we have to start planning without the full information on things such as rover state or returned data, we have to keep several options open, because we of course want to maximize the science that Curiosity does on Mars that next sol! That means, book-keeping a lot of 'If ... then ...'-options open.
But after over ten years, the team has some experience with that, and our keeper of the plan kept the overview of more than just one plan today. For me, though, the trick is to have lots of little sticky notes, and at one point my computer screen was half covered in them. But the information eventually arrived in part, and the science team received the go for planning our two-sol plan. However, we were still waiting on some pieces of information, which came in after we had put together our ChemCam and Mastcam activities. While we were working in one virtual room, engineers and the mission leadership were assessing the rover data as they came in.
Finally, and unfortunately for us in the science planning room, the decision was made to be absolutely sure that the rover would be kept safe and happy, and therefore, as a precaution, all the science activities with ChemCam and Mastcam did not get included in the plan.
That does not mean the rover, which in itself is happy and healthy, will be completely idle! CheMin will get more mineralogy data for us. DAN will do its activities to investigate the water and chlorine in the underground below the rover, and REMS will do its weather measurements such as wind and temperature.
Of course, data management activities feature in the plan as well. With that, a hectic, and in the end a little disappointing planning day ends, and we hand over to the next team. Well, they have a ready-made plan now! ... and I can look at my window, which is now covered in snow so thickly that I cannot even see the streetlights anymore. Well, I step out of the house and feel the snow under my feet, and my mind wanders back to dreaming about Martian snow crunching under spacesuit boots... Well, would we have needed one, back when Mars had more precipitation and Gale was filled with a lake? Yes, you guessed it, I am back to time-and-space-travel dreams while I watch the snow fall and cover my garden in beautiful, peaceful white.
Martian Deja Vu: Sol 3763
by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 7 - We had another later start to planning today, and again are planning only a single sol. In a lot of ways, the plan is similar to yestersol's. Having completed the column clean, we're ready to drop the sample off to SAM for GCMS tomorrow. So, like yestersol, the plan includes a short science block, the SAM activity, and then a lot of napping. Because SAM is so power hungry, we have to be careful about how much power other activities are taking. Both GEO and ENV had to prioritize observations and have an idea of what could be dropped or exchanged.
In our short science block, Mastcam is extending imaging of the targets 'Tefe' and 'Sima Humboldt.' ChemCam has a LIBS observation on a nearby pyramid shaped float block, 'Mont Nadai,' which you can see in the image above. The science block is rounded out with a dust devil survey from ENV.
After the science block, Curiosity will take a little nap to get ready to deliver the drill sample to SAM. This is accompanied by Mastcam imaging of the SAM inlet both before and after dropping off the sample. The dropoff wraps up with the sample hopefully safe and sound and ready for GCMS tomorrow, and, just like yestersol, Curiosity will go to sleep until it's time to wake up for tomorrow's plan.
Related Links
Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more
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