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

After journeying this summer season by a slender, sand-lined go, 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 right, these minerals provide tantalizing clues as to how—and why—the Crimson Planet’s local weather modified from being extra Earth-like to the frozen desert it’s immediately.

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 varieties and indicators of previous water, amongst them popcorn-textured nodules and salty minerals similar to magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt is one form), calcium sulfate (together with gypsum), and sodium chloride (strange desk salt).

They chose a rock nicknamed “Canaima” for the mission’s thirty sixth drill pattern, and selecting was no straightforward process. Together with scientific concerns, the staff 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 staff 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 could show troublesome to drill,” stated Curiosity’s new challenge supervisor, Kathya Zamora-Garcia of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We paused to contemplate whether or not that posed any threat 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 sit up for analyzing parts of the pattern with the Chemical and Minerology instrument (CheMin) and the Pattern Evaluation at Mars instrument (SAM).

Tough driving

The journey to the sulfate-rich area took Curiosity by treacherous terrain, together with, this previous August, the sandy “Paraitepuy Move,” which snakes between excessive hills. It took the rover greater than a month to soundly navigate with the intention 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, probably inflicting the rover to get caught if the wheels lose traction. Rover drivers have to rigorously navigate these areas.

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

After braving these dangers, the staff 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 Digital camera, or Mastcam.

“We’d get new pictures 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 good little rover tracks on them. And the cliffs had been lovely—we obtained 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 secure floor. If the rover is not secure, engineers will not threat 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 staff are prepared for this subsequent chapter of their journey.