Breaking the Record in Long-Distance Observations with Curiosity ChemCam RMI: Imaging Babati Mons Outside Gale Crater

The Remote Microscopic Imager (RMI) of the ChemCam instrument onboard the Curiosity rover has been designed to provide high-resolution images of soils and rocks located at few meters from the rover [1, 2]. Thanks to an improved capacity to automatically focus up to infinity implemented in 2014 [3], RMI progressively became a long-distance investigation tool thanks to its 700 mm-long focal length. Here, we discuss an imaging experiment which took benefit of the low opacity season to push the limits of long-distance observations, by targeting a mountain located at more than 90 km from the rover, outside Gale crater (Fig. 1).