Sol 17 Summary

Science Assessment Meeting

Engineering reported that the rover completed a successful drive of 70.6 m and stopped at a point approximately 45 to 46 m as the crow flies from its previous position. The DTE Navcam and hazcam images shows that the rover stopped on a soil surface with coarse rocks fragments on top. The rover is relatively level with a tilt of about 3 degrees. The front hazcam image shows that the rover appears to be facing East. However, analysis of the rear hazcam image, which shows the position of the Sun suggests that the rover localization is not well characterized. The Atmosphere theme group and engineering team continue to analyze the sun sensor and rover localization issue.

The major issue for planning this sol is whether to trench at this location or drive to another site for trenching. There may not be a strong scientific rationale to trench in the current rover location. Several theme groups (soils, geology and long term planning) are addressing the issue of driving or trenching on Sol 17.

SOWG Meeting and Sequence Summary

Sol 17 was an approach day with the objective of driving about 10 m to a bright soil patch that is thought to be suitable for trenching. The uplinked sequence included:

• Five MiniTES observations of the sky were planned. The sequence is indicated to study boundary layer turbulence. The observations were pointed 10 degrees above the horizon and repeated with a 2 minute separation.
• One MiniTES observation of soil was targeted since this site is a potential trenching opportunity.
• A drive sequence designed to move a total of about 10 meters was designed in two sections. The first part of the drive was planned as a 9 meters drive followed by several remote sensing observations that consisted of a front hazcam image, IPS measurements with a single navcam wedge for target location support, and a pancam color mosaic. The second section of the drive moved the rover forward another meter to the white line target. The final drive was followed by acquisition of front and rear hazcam images and a 180 degree forward looking navcam mosaic to be used to future drive planning.

Observation requests that were not included in the Sol 17 sequence were a full 360 degree navcam mosaic (only 180 degrees in front of rover will be acquired), and a navcam mosaic from the intermediate drive waypoint.

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