Roaming into the Future: Navigating Mars Rover Activities on Sol 513

As the SOWG Chair for Sol 513, my day was spent planning activities for the rover. Our main focus was to capture a full set of MAHLI images of its wheels. We took these images in between short drives to ensure that the entire surface of the wheels was imaged. Despite the power requirements of these activities, we made sure not to drain the rover’s battery too much by carefully planning our schedule.

In addition to capturing images, we also included some post-drive scientific tasks in our plan. We used DAN to actively measure hydrogen below the surface and conducted a cloud search using Navcam. We also took necessary imaging to plan targeted observations for Sol 514.

The planning process started earlier than usual, as we had to send command sequences to the rover by 5 PM Pacific time. Although it wasn’t as early as the previous day when it was still dark out during my commute to work, it was still a busy and productive day planning for the rover’s activities on Sol 513.