25.02.2022
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3397, February 25, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3396, February 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3397 duties.
Reports Mariah Baker, a planetary geologist in the Center for Earth & Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum:
“If all goes according to plan, the rover’s drive on sol 3397 will position us at the edge of the rocks that cap Greenheugh Pediment. This drive was pushed back from sol 3395 in order to collect even more data on the sedimentary rocks in our current workspace before we leave this rock formation and enter into a new one.”
Three full hours of contact and remote science activities were planned prior to the drive.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 3395, February 23, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Bedrock target “Scousburgh” will be analyzed with Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), and Mastcam multispectral after being brushed with the Dust Removal Tool (DRT).
APXS, MAHLI, and ChemCam LIBS data will also be acquired on a concretion feature called “Blackthorn Salt.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3396, February 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Float rock
ChemCam passive observations will be collected on a float rock called “Carn Chuinneag,” as well as on the bedrock target “Galdenoch” that was DRT’ed on sol 3395. “The latter target will also be imaged with a Mastcam multispectral to collect additional data on this patch of cleaned bedrock,” Baker adds.
Four image mosaics will provide a closer look at far-field rock targets: A Mastcam mosaic will be acquired covering rock outcrop “Auchinleck Tip,” and another will extend coverage over the Stimson formation contact.
What’s this? Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3396, February 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
An interesting observation by Curiosity at Gale Crater is demanding some attention, as seen in new imagery:
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3397, February 25, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3397, February 25, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
The distant Gediz-Vallis Ridge will also be imaged with Mastcam and ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI). Two additional Mastcam images of a sand deposit in front of the rover called “The Souter” will be used to search for wind-driven sand motion during Curiosity’s stop at this location, Baker explains.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right and Left imagery taken on Sol 3395 February 23, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Rim shots
Lastly, a set of environmental monitoring observations were scheduled before the rover’s drive, including a Navcam line of site image, Navcam dust devil movie, Navcam suprahorizon movie, and Mastcam crater rim observation.
“A Mastcam image to assess dust in the atmosphere will also be acquired on sol 3397 after the rover’s drive towards the pediment,” Baker concludes. “This plan will likely be our last opportunity to study the sedimentary rocks that built Mt. Sharp before we transition into a new geologic formation that caps the pediment, so the team made the most out of it!”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3397, February 25, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3397, February 25, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 7.03.2022
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Curiosity rover snaps close-up of tiny 'mineral flower' on Mars
The beautiful branching rock formed when water still covered the Red Planet.
A photo of the "mineral flower" alongside other diagenetic features on the surface of Mars captured by NASA's Curiosity rover on Feb. 25. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA's Curiosity rover recently got up close and personal with a tiny, flower-like mineral deposit on the surface of Mars. The beautiful branching rock, which is just 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) wide, looks a bit like a coral or a sponge. Despite its likeness to a living organism, however, the deposit is not alive and is a fairly common sight across the Martian landscape.
Curiosity snapped a picture of the tiny mineral flower on Feb. 25 near Aeolis Mons, also known as Mount Sharp, at the heart of the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale crater, which the rover has been studying since its arrival on the Red Planet in 2012. The image is a composite of multiple shots taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager, which takes close-ups using a magnifying lens. This type of composite photo allows the rover to produce much more detailed images, according to NASA.
The flower-like rock, which has been named the Blackthorn Salt, is a diagenetic feature, or one made from minerals that precipitated from ancient water that had previously been mixed with Martian rock, Abigail Fraeman, a planetary scientist and deputy project scientist for the Curiosity rover, told Live Science. Diagenetic features found on Mars are similar in size but can have either a branched shape, also known as dendritic form, like the Blackthorn Salt, or be more rounded or even spherical, like other rocks in the same photo, she added.
"We've seen diagenetic features with similar shapes before," Fraeman said, "but this dendritic shape is particularly beautiful."
Curiosity has uncovered several other diagenetic features since its arrival in Gale crater. That's not surprising given that the crater could once have been a lake that would have provided the water from which such features precipitate. In 2015, several other flower-like deposits were discovered in the Pahrump Hillsarea, and in 2019, other diagenetic features were found at the Murray formation.
A black and white photo of the "Martian blueberries" on the Martian surface (left) and a close up of their surface (right), both taken by NASA's Opportunity rover on Feb. 9, 2004. (Image credit: JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS)
And in 2004, Curiosity's older sibling, the Opportunity rover, found a number of spherical features on Meridiani Planum — a plain-like area near the Martian equator — with a bluish-silver hue, earning them the nickname "Martian blueberries." These rocks were blue because they were composed of hematite, a type of iron oxide, Fraeman said. The Blackthorn Salt and other features photographed by Curiosity have a composition and color almost identical to those of the surrounding bedrock, she added.
Continuing to document new diagenetic features like the Blackthorn Salt is important because it could help researchers figure out when liquid water disappeared from Mars. "We can learn more about the complex and long-lived history of water at Mount Sharp," Fraeman said. This could reveal more information about how long the environment could have been potentially habitable to life, she added.
Quelle: SC