Topic: Gale Crater

NASA Mars Curiosity Rover completes drilling it’s Second Rock on Mars

May 21, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has used the drill on its robotic arm to collect a powdered sample from the interior of a rock called “Cumberland.”

Plans call for delivering portions of the sample in coming days to laboratory instruments inside the rover. This is only the second time that a sample has been collected from inside a rock on Mars. The first was Curiosity’s drilling at a target called “John Klein” three months ago. Cumberland resembles John Klein and lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) farther west. Both are within a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay.”

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity drilled into this rock target, “Cumberland,” during the 279th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars (May 19, 2013) and collected a powdered sample of material from the rock’s interior. Analysis of the Cumberland sample using laboratory instruments inside Curiosity will check results from “John Klein,” the first rock on Mars from which a sample was ever collected and analyzed. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover data reveals remaining atmosphere on Mars is still active

April 9, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Vienna, Austria – Mars has lost much of its original atmosphere, but what’s left remains quite active, recent findings from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity indicate. Rover team members reported diverse findings today at the European Geosciences Union 2013 General Assembly, in Vienna.

Evidence has strengthened this month that Mars lost much of its original atmosphere by a process of gas escaping from the top of the atmosphere.

This image shows the first holes into rock drilled by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes plus piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarded after other portions of the sample had been delivered to analytical instruments inside the rover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover back to full operation after computer glitch

March 26, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has resumed science investigations after recovery from a computer glitch that prompted the engineers to switch the rover to a redundant main computer on February 28th.

The rover has been monitoring the weather since March 21st and delivered a new portion of powdered-rock sample for laboratory analysis on March 23rd, among other activities.

This view of Curiosity’s left-front and left-center wheels and of marks made by wheels on the ground in the “Yellowknife Bay” area comes from one of six cameras used on Mars for the first time more than six months after the rover landed. The left Navigation Camera (Navcam) linked to Curiosity’s B-side computer took this image during the 223rd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars (March 22, 2013). The wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity sees evidence that conditions favorable for Microbial Life extends beyond current location

March 19, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Woodlands, TX – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has seen evidence of water-bearing minerals in rocks near where it had already found clay minerals inside a drilled rock.

Last week, the rover’s science team announced that analysis of powder from a drilled mudstone rock on Mars indicates past environmental conditions that were favorable for microbial life. Additional findings presented March 18th at a news briefing at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, suggest those conditions extended beyond the site of the drilling.

On this image of the rock target “Knorr,” color coding maps the amount of mineral hydration indicated by a ratio of near-infrared reflectance intensities measured by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU)

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity takes Panorama of Mount Sharp

March 17, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Rising above the present location of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, higher than any mountain in the 48 contiguous states of the United States, Mount Sharp is featured in new imagery from the rover.

A pair of mosaics assembled from dozens of telephoto images shows Mount Sharp in dramatic detail. The component images were taken by the 100-millimeter-focal-length telephoto lens camera mounted on the right side of Curiosity’s remote sensing mast, during the 45th Martian day of the rover’s mission on Mars (September 20th, 2012).

This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity shows Mount Sharp in a white-balanced color adjustment that makes the sky look overly blue but shows the terrain as if under Earth-like lighting.

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NASA’s Curiosity rover analysis of rock sample reveals Mars at one time could have supported Life

March 13, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – An analysis of a rock sample recently collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

“A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “From what we know now, the answer is yes.”

These fine-grained sediments, likely deposited under water, suggest that Mars could have supported ancient microbial life. Data gathered by Curiosity indicate a habitable environment characterized by neutral pH, chemical gradients that would have created energy for microbes, and a distinctly low salinity, which would have helped metabolism if microorganisms had ever been present. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity Instruments begins to analyze first sample of rock powder on Mars

February 26, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Two compact laboratories inside NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars.

Curiosity science team members will use the laboratories to analyze the rock powder in the coming days and weeks.

The rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments received portions of the sample on Friday and Saturday, February 22nd and 23rd, respectively, and began inspecting the powder.

The left Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took this image of Curiosity’s sample-processing and delivery tool just after the tool delivered a portion of powdered rock into the rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. This Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) tool delivered portions of the first sample ever acquired from the interior of a rock on Mars into both SAM and the rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has drilled first Rock Sample on Mars

February 22, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever collected from the interior of a rock on another planet. No rover has ever drilled into a rock beyond Earth and collected a sample from its interior.

Transfer of the powdered-rock sample into an open scoop was visible for the first time in images received Wednesday at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.

This image from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the first sample of powdered rock extracted by the rover’s drill. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity completes first drilling of a rock on Mars

February 10, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.

The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill.

At the center of this image from NASA’s Curiosity rover is the hole in a rock called “John Klein” where the rover conducted its first sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on Feb. 8th, 2013, or Sol 182, Curiosity’s 182nd Martian day of operations. Several preparatory activities with the drill preceded this operation, including a test that produced the shallower hole on the right two days earlier, but the deeper hole resulted from the first use of the drill for rock sample collection. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover gets set to start Drilling

January 30, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has placed its drill onto a series of four locations on a Martian rock and pressed down on it with the rover’s arm, in preparation for using the drill in coming days.

The rover carried out this “pre-load” testing on Mars yesterday (January 27th). The tests enable engineers to check whether the amount of force applied to the hardware matches predictions for what would result from the commanded motions.

The percussion drill in the turret of tools at the end of the robotic arm of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has been positioned in contact with the rock surface in this image from the rover’s front Hazard-Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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