NASA Curiosity Rover Status Report: Near Possible Target for Use of Arm Instruments

September 28, 2012

On Sol 52 (Sept. 28), Curiosity drove about 122 feet (37.3 meters) eastward toward the Glenelg area, using visual odometry to assess and adjust for any wheel slippage. The mission’s total distance driven has now reached 0.28 mile (0.45 kilometer). The drive brought the rover to a few meters away from an outcrop being considered for an approach drive and subsequent examination with instruments at the end of Curiosity’s arm: the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and the Mars Hand Lens Imager.

Another priority in coming sols is to reach a location for first use of the rover’s capability to scoop up soil material and deliver a sample of it into laboratory instruments.

Activities on Sol 52 included the usual monitoring of the environment around Curiosity with the Radiation Assessment Detector, the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument, and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station. A raw image from Curiosity’s left Navigation Camera, showing the ground near the rover after the Sol 52 drive, is at http://1.usa.gov/SifbNW.

Curiosity continues to work in good health. Sol 52, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ends at 5:48 p.m. Sept. 28, PDT (8:48 p.m. EDT).