On the weekend, the planned activities were successfully executed and the rover is now in an optimal location to begin a thorough campaign of wheel imaging. Initially, a short drive was scheduled for Sol 512 to adjust the rover’s position for wheel imaging. However, it was discovered that the drive was not necessary, allowing more time for conducting contact science activities. This unexpected change in plans required the Science Theme Groups and myself, as the SOWG Chair, to quickly adapt and prepare for the new tasks at hand.
As we reviewed the data to determine whether a drive was needed, we took advantage of the additional time to add an extra APXS/MAHLI target for conducting contact science. We included an overnight APXS integration on a target called “Kodak,” which required planning to be adjusted due to unrestricted planning this week. As a result, we had to begin our planning session earlier than usual at 6:00 Pacific time to ensure that all necessary tasks were completed efficiently.