NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover reaches long-awaited salty region

After journeying this summer season by a slender, sand-lined move, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover just lately arrived within the “sulfate-bearing unit,” a long-sought area of Mount Sharp enriched with salty minerals.

Scientists hypothesize that billions of years in the past, streams, and ponds left behind the minerals because the water dried up. Assuming the speculation is appropriate, these minerals provide tantalizing clues as to how—and why—the Purple Planet’s local weather modified from being extra Earth-like to the frozen desert it’s as we speak.

The minerals had been noticed by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter years earlier than Curiosity landed in 2012, so scientists have been ready a very long time to see this terrain up shut. Quickly after arriving, the rover found a various array of rock sorts and indicators of previous water, amongst them popcorn-textured nodules and salty minerals comparable to magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt is one variety), calcium sulfate (together with gypsum), and sodium chloride (atypical desk salt).

They chose a rock nicknamed “Canaima” for the mission’s thirty sixth drill pattern, and selecting was no simple job. Together with scientific issues, the group needed to issue within the rover {hardware}. Curiosity makes use of a percussive, or jackhammering, rotary drill on the finish of its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to pulverize rock samples for evaluation. Worn brakes on the arm just lately led the group to conclude that some tougher rocks might require an excessive amount of hammering to drill safely.

“As we do earlier than each drill, we brushed away the dust after which poked the highest floor of Canaima with the drill. The dearth of scratch marks or indentations was a sign that it might show tough to drill,” stated Curiosity’s new mission supervisor, Kathya Zamora-Garcia of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We paused to contemplate whether or not that posed any danger to our arm. With the brand new drilling algorithm, created to reduce using percussion, we felt snug gathering a pattern of Canaima. Because it turned out, no percussion was wanted.”

The mission’s scientists stay up for analyzing parts of the pattern with the Chemical and Minerology instrument (CheMin) and the Pattern Evaluation at Mars instrument (SAM).

Troublesome driving

The journey to the sulfate-rich area took Curiosity by treacherous terrain, together with, this previous August, the sandy “Paraitepuy Go,” which snakes between excessive hills. It took the rover greater than a month to soundly navigate so as to lastly attain its vacation spot.

Whereas sharp rocks can harm Curiosity’s wheels (which have loads of life left in them), sand could be simply as hazardous, doubtlessly inflicting the rover to get caught if the wheels lose traction. Rover drivers have to fastidiously navigate these areas.

The hills blocked Curiosity’s view of the sky, requiring the rover to be fastidiously oriented primarily based on the place it may level its antennas towards Earth and the way lengthy it may talk with orbiters passing overhead.

After braving these dangers, the group was rewarded with a few of the most inspiring surroundings of the mission, which the rover captured with an Aug. 14 panorama utilizing its Mast Digicam, or Mastcam.

“We might get new photos each morning and simply be in awe,” stated Elena Amador-French of JPL, Curiosity’s science operations coordinator, who manages collaboration between the science and engineering groups. “The sand ridges had been attractive. You see excellent little rover tracks on them. And the cliffs had been stunning—we bought actually near the partitions.”

However this new area comes with its personal challenges: Whereas scientifically compelling, the rockier terrain makes it tougher to discover a place the place all six of Curiosity’s wheels are on steady floor. If the rover is not steady, engineers will not danger unstowing the arm, in case it’d bang into the jagged rocks.

“The an increasing number of attention-grabbing the science outcomes get, the extra obstacles Mars appears to throw at us,” Amador-French stated.

However the rover, which just lately marked its tenth 12 months on Mars, and its group are prepared for this subsequent chapter of their journey.