It’s déjà vu all over again

Just when we thought we were going to leave this spot on Mars, we found ourselves stuck here for yet another sol. This time, a fault during one of our arm activities caused us to lose our plans for the past two sols (which would have included a drive to our next waypoint in the Vera Rubin Ridge science campaign) and we were in recovery mode again today. This picture of the arm’s shadow on the ground was taken just before the fault. So today, we make our third attempt to complete our science activities at this stop, including ChemCam and Mastcam targets of nearby bedrock: “Sherwood Forest”, “Tableland”, and “Troll Valley”. We were also able to plan a Mastcam image of a target named “Elf Woods” that was originally intended for the weekend plan, but had to be removed for power considerations. Following these science activities, Curiosity will drive approximately 10 m closer to our third stop on Vera Rubin Ridge.