Multiple-Target Single-Cycle Instrument Placement for Surface Science A fundamental operation in planetary surface science is placing an instrument, such as a microscope or a rock abrasion tool, on a target. For the MER rover the time from target selection, generally based on a panoramic image, to instrument placement is three sols. The reason for this delay is that MER requires detailed human guidance on target tracking, target approach, and arm motion planning. An early goal of the Mars Science Laboratory mission was to place instruments on targets 10 meters away with cm accuracy within one command cycle. Recent research at Ames Research Center has led to the development of a robotic system that can place instruments on not just one target in a command cycle but can autonomously place instruments on multiple rock targets. This is accomplished by integrating advances in target tracking, 3-dimensional mesh registration, robust execution, and contingency planning. In this talk we will discuss the overall system developed at Ames from, ground operations to rover software, and show video of recent field trails in which the Ames K9 rover has shown accurate fully autonomous instrument placement on four chosen rock targets at 10 meter distance in less than 1 ½ hours.