We're trying to understand how Gediz Vallis ridge formed, in particular what kind of watery settings may or may not have been involved. We also want to understand how it relates to the rest of the rocks that make up Mount Sharp and Gediz Vallis channel in order to better constrain when the events that built it happened.
We'll also spend the weekend investigating the area much closer to Curiosity. We'll be collecting Mastcam images of some rocks that have interesting textures that we unofficially named "Uruca," "Tikwah Mine," and "Prata." We're also snapping a photo of a large sand ridge that is right behind the rover, and ChemCam will zap two rock targets, "Cotingo," and "Boca da Mata," as well as an automatically selected target using the AEGIS software.
APXS and MAHLI will get in on the science action as well, with observations of targets named "Jutai" and "Raposa." We'll use the DRT to brush dust away from the Raposa target before the APXS and MAHLI observations, so we'll also take a Mastcam multispectral image of this less dusty area. Observations to model the environment around Curiosity and a 50 m drive will round out the plan.
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