With Jake confirmed as the target for contact science and a further check-out of MAHLI and APXS, the rover was moved in close, and the robot arm flexed to check reach and positioning, the manipulations being captured initially in black-and-white by the Navcams.
First contact with Jake was made on September 22 (Sol 46). News of the contact came via Curiosity’s twitter feed, which read: I did a science! 1st contact science on rock target Jake. Here’s an action shot. The black-and-white image from the Navcam system showed the turret placed up against Jake.
At the time of writing, NASA have yet to comment on the contact, but it appears to have been with the APXS instrument, although MAHLI was also used to gain some close-up colour images of the surface of Jake as well, with thumbnail images being returned over a period of several hours as the first contact work was conducted.
As well as using MAHLI and APXS to examine the rock, it is likely that the ChemCam laser and telescope systems will be used at some point in the next day or so to gather spectroscopic information on chemical composition of the rock.
When planning the excursion to Genelg, there was some discussion as to whether the drill and sample acquisition systems on the robot arm might also be tested on a suitable target rock while en route, or whether the drill deployment / testing would be held-over until arrival at the rover’s initial destination. Currently, it is not clear whether Jake has been determined to be a suitable target for drilling or not.
Mission Trivia
Some of Curiosity’s “wake-up” call tunes to date: Sol 4 – “Walking on Sunshine” (Katrina & the Waves); Sol 8 – “Star Wars Main Theme” ( comp. John Williams); Sol 14: “Star Trek Theme” (comp. Alexander Courage); Sol 16 – “Rawhide Theme” (Blues Brothers); Sol 20 – “Tribute to Tribute to Neil Armstrong (Rocket Man)” ( Elton John); Sol 22 – “”Hit the Road Jack” (Ray Charles); Sol 29 – “Born to Run” (Bruce Springsteen); Sol 30 – “Don’t Stop Me Now” (Queen).
All images courtesy of NASA / JPL
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