29th August 2013 Sol 378

We are now about 300 m from Waypoint1.  That is one of the stopping off points on the way to the clay-rich horizon of Mt. Sharp.  We will take the opportunity to deploy more of the Curiosity instruments.

The terrain has a light toned outcrop with similarities to the conglomerates we have been seeing since landing and darker ‘float’ rocks, which seem igneous,scattered over it.  On sol 378 we used autonomous navigation. This is something that Mars mission planners have been thinking of for some time.  On MSL it can mean that we are able to drive further per day as small potential obstacles can be safely identified on the rover without the need for human intervention.  How far autonomy could go in replacing the role of scientists in identifying interesting targets is a subject of debate!