As the SOWG Chair for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) on Sol 13, I led a team in planning out activities for the day. The tactical planning team has been improving their efficiency, allowing us to include more new scientific observations in our plan. The science team was particularly strong today, with Steve Squyres serving as the Principal Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. It was a fun role reversal as I usually work under Steve as a science lead for the Microscopic imager on the MER instrument arms.
During the planning process, we encountered a challenge when we learned that the SAM instrument checkout planned for Sol 14 would need to be split into two Sols. This was due to the need to analyze the results from the first part on Earth before proceeding with the second part. To avoid wasting an extra sol to complete this, we had to quickly reorganize the plan to fit the first part of the checkout in Sol 13. It was a difficult task, but we managed to come up with a new plan and passed it onto the second shift for implementation.
The Opportunity mission, which is still operating on