Atmospheric Scientist Alex Innanen from York University has reported on a potential drill spot on Mars. The team is examining a block that they may attempt to drill, but they have to ensure that it is the right spot. The team will carry out contact science on “Ubajara,” which is a block located on the left of the image. The GEO team spent time picking a special target name, which involved looking at pictures of national parks. Ubajara, a national park in Brazil, was chosen as it is more lush and green than Gale Crater, but the mountains and canyons are reminders of the canyon Curiosity just climbed out of. The team had planned a typical drill sol 1, with MAHLI and APXS on the drill target, and a brush with the dust removal tool. However, they learned that they would not be able to use the DRT until they get more images of this target. The team was still able to move forward with other activities in the plan and still prepare to examine this block to decide if they want to drill it in the future. The plan starts with a couple ENV activities, looking back towards the crater rim to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and then scanning for dust devils. Then Mastcam and ChemCam will both image Ubajara in advance of the contact science. After contact science, ENV has afternoon observations to try to catch some clouds. The next sol again starts with ENV, this time with targeted cloud and dust devil movies. Then ChemCam has a LIBS observation of “Bwesse Kiiki,” and a long distance RMI mosaic on a ridge to the north. Mastcam is also documenting the ChemCam LIBS target and doing multispectral imaging on the layered block “Ekeni.”
