Curiosity schedules three sols to recharge during the Nazca campaign

Three sols with a reduced workload

NASA described a three-sol plan—5060, 5061, and 5062—to help Curiosity recharge before returning to its usual drilling activities. The rover was in the middle of a campaign at the target called “Nazca.” It had already drilled there, characterized the drill tailings with ChemCam, and delivered several samples to the SAM and CheMin instruments inside the vehicle.

The campaign still included an additional delivery of material to SAM for another type of analysis and drill-cleaning tasks. One of these is called RAGE, short for Rotate to Agitate for Granule Expulsion: it involves agitating the drill to expel any sample left inside. NASA also said the plan included taking numerous images of the hole and the drill tailings. The agency explained that these activities consume a lot of energy and that it therefore deliberately reduced the scheduled tasks to allow for several sols with a positive energy balance (NASA).

Recharging did not mean a complete pause in science. Each of the three sols included a standard morning block of observations. The plan combined remote studies with ChemCam and Remote Micro-Imager mosaics of the “Titicaca,” “Pampas,” and “Salta” targets; Mastcam images of the calibration target and drill site; dust-devil studies with Navcam; tau observations with Mastcam; and twilight images.

Observations as the campaign continues

NASA placed these activities in the context of studying Nazca’s crystal-bearing formations and the nearby layered rocks and bedrock. The text describes which observations were included in the plan, but does not report detailed measurement results or conclusions about the area’s composition or geological history. Therefore, the operations identify the targets and methods mentioned by the agency, but do not establish what the analyses revealed.

The contrast between the planned activity and what the text allows us to conclude also matters for understanding the pause: Curiosity continued making observations while drilling and cleaning tasks remained pending. The available information does not indicate that the additional delivery to SAM or the drill cleaning had already been completed during these three sols. NASA presented them as part of the remaining work to wrap up the Nazca campaign.

A test of parallel activities

On sol 5061, Curiosity carried out a new engineering activity to test parallelism during a downlink communication window. NASA explained that this strategy involves carrying out two activities at once to reduce the amount of time the rover stays awake and thus save energy. Before combining activities, the team must check that each pair is safe to run simultaneously.

The test combined CheMin’s “Get Data” activity with sending information to one of the orbiters. According to NASA, “Get Data” is a CPU-intensive activity that transfers scientific data from the instrument to the flight computers. The agency said the test appeared to have gone well, but the engineering team still needed to receive and analyze the results. Therefore, the text reports a test and a preliminary impression, not definitive validation of this combination or a quantified amount of energy saved.

What the CERN context does—and does not—add

The CERN pages included among the references cover different topics: one explains the Standard Model of particle physics, and the other presents the laboratory’s experiments and accelerators. For example, CERN states that the Standard Model encompasses the electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions, but does not include gravity; its page on experiments describes, among other things, accelerators, detectors, and research programs (CERN, Standard Model; CERN, experiments and collaborations).

This material provides general context about particle physics and experimentation, but does not provide information about Curiosity, the Nazca drill, or the simultaneous-operations test. The description of these activities comes from NASA. Its post presents the three sols as a period of energy recovery and observations while the team waited to complete the campaign; it also anticipates that more information would follow about the remaining tasks, without presenting them as already completed.