Sol 35 update

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has posted an update for sol 35 operations. Seems they suffered a command error with the ChemCam instrument (aka the laser shooting instrument) on sol 34:

Unfortunately, ChemCam suffered a command error on Sol 34 and was shut down by the rover computer. This also prevented the rest of the planned remote sensing observations from being acquired that sol, and the remote sensing mast (RSM) from being used on Sol 35. So the Sol 35 plan was rather simple, including more APXS integration on its calibration target followed by retraction of the arm.

The APXS's calibration target consists of a piece of basalt (a type of volcanic rock) from New Mexico.

Basalt from Earth seen by MAHLI  (NASA/JPL/MSSS)

So the remote sensing mast (RSM) which holds the cameras and the meteorology package was rendered inoperable for the rest of sol 35 (which explains why there are no mastcam images yet from sol 35). But there is something positive to look forward to:

 Even though we couldn't use the RSM, we could still plan a test of Mastcam's video capability, as it doesn't matter where the cameras are pointed for this test.

So we should expect the FIRST video clip from the rover soon enough! In other news from NASA's update:

 The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument, mounted near the rear of the rover, was given commands for a nearly six-hour reading after the Mars-afternoon communications pass by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. DAN is used to check whether the ground under the rover holds hydrated minerals, which have water molecules or water-related ions bound into the mineral's crystalline structure.