[meteorite-list] NASA's Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 16:55:27 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201507232355.t6NNtRp6023140_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4668

NASA's Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 23, 2015

Fast Facts:

* Rover examines geological contact zone near 'Marias Pass'

* Silica-rich rocks identified nearby with laser-firing instrument

* Test of rover's drill prepares for next use on Mars rock

Approaching the third anniversary of its landing on Mars, NASA's Curiosity
Mars rover has found a target unlike anything it has studied before --
bedrock with surprisingly high levels of silica. Silica is a rock-forming
compound containing silicon and oxygen, commonly found on Earth as quartz.

This area lies just downhill from a geological contact zone the rover
has been studying near "Marias Pass" on lower Mount Sharp.

In fact, the Curiosity team decided to back up the rover 46 meters (151
feet) from the geological contact zone to investigate the high-silica
target dubbed "Elk." The decision was made after they analyzed data from
two instruments, the laser-firing Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Dynamic
Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), which show elevated amounts of silicon and hydrogen,
respectively. High levels of silica in the rock could indicate ideal conditions
for preserving ancient organic material, if present, so the science team
wants to take a closer look.

"One never knows what to expect on Mars, but the Elk target was interesting
enough to go back and investigate," said Roger Wiens, the principal investigator
of the ChemCam instrument from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New
Mexico. ChemCam is coming up on its 1,000th target, having already fired
its laser more than 260,000 times since Curiosity landed on Mars Aug.
6, 2012, Universal Time (evening of Aug. 5, Pacific Time).

In other news, an engineering test on the rover's sample-collecting drill
on July 18 is aiding analysis of intermittent short circuits in the drill's
percussion mechanism, in preparation for using the drill in the area where
the rover has been working for the past two months. The latest test did
not result in any short circuits, so the team plans to continue with more
tests, performed on the science targets themselves.

Before Curiosity began further investigating the high-silica area, it
was busy scrutinizing the geological contact zone near Marias Pass, where
a pale mudstone meets darker sandstone.

"We found an outcrop named Missoula where the two rock types came together,
but it was quite small and close to the ground. We used the robotic arm
to capture a dog's-eye view with the MAHLI camera, getting our nose right
in there," said Ashwin Vasavada, the mission's project scientist at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. MAHLI is short for
Mars Hand Lens Imager.

The rover had reached this area after a steep climb up a 20-foot (6-meter)
hill. Near the top of the climb, the ChemCam instrument fired its laser
at the target Elk, and took a spectral reading of its composition.

"ChemCam acts like eyes and ears of the rover for nearby objects," said
Wiens.

The rover had moved on before the Elk data were analyzed, so a U-turn
was required to obtain more data. Upon its return, the rover was able
to study a similar target, "Lamoose," up close with the MAHLI camera and
the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).

Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached
the base of Mount Sharp last year after fruitfully investigating outcrops
closer to its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main
mission objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount
Sharp.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory developed
ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French
national space agency. Russia's space agency provided Curiosity's DAN
instrument. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Curiosity,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity


Media Contact

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

2015-247
Received on Thu 23 Jul 2015 07:55:27 PM PDT