Mars Rover Curiosity

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Curiosity Rover's Traverse, First 663 Sols on Mars



This map shows in red the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it touched down in August 2012 (blue star at upper right) through the 663rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (June 18, 2014). The white line shows the planned route ahead to reach "Murray Buttes" (at white star), the chosen access point to destinations on Mount Sharp.

The rover will complete a mission goal of working for a full Martian year on Sol 669 (June 24, 2014). A Martian year is 687 Earth days.

Gridlines indicate quadrants charted before the rover's landing for purposes of geological mapping of the landing region within Mars' Gale Crater. The Sol 663 location is within the Hanover quadrant. Next on the rover's route is the Shoshone quadrant.

The curved line cutting through the northern portion of the Shoshone quadrant is the edge of the mission's target landing ellipse -- the area within which engineers calculated the spacecraft would land. For a wider view that includes the entire ellipse, see PIA15687 .

Curiosity departed a waypoint called "The Kimberley" on Sol 630 (May 15, 2014) and reached the Sol 663 (June 18, 2014) location by driving more than three-fourths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in five weeks.

A major destination for the mission remains geological layering exposed on the lower slope of Mount Sharp, with "Murray Buttes" chosen as the entry point because of a gap there in a band of dark-toned dune fields edging the base of the mountain. The white line indicates a planned route to Murray Buttes chosen in spring 2014 as the safest path for the rover's wheels. Embedded, sharp rocks on the route driven between the "Cooperstown" and "Kimberley" waypoints marked on the map caused the pace of wear and tear on the wheels to accelerate unexpectedly in late 2013. The white-line route avoids some stretches of similar terrain on a more northerly route previously planned for getting to Murray Buttes. The base image for this map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. North is up. The scale bar at lower right represents one kilometer (0.62 mile).

At Yellowknife Bay, the Mars Science Laboratory Project that built and operates Curiosity achieved its main science objective of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Rock-powder samples drilled from two mudstone rocks there and analyzed onboard yielded evidence for an ancient lakebed with mild water, the chemical elements needed for life and a mineral source of energy used by some Earth microbes.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/USGS

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07.16.2014
NASA Rover's Images Show Laser Flash on Martian Rock

Flashes appear on a baseball-size Martian rock in a series of images taken Saturday, July 12 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the arm of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover. The flashes occurred while the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument fired multiple laser shots to investigate the rock's composition.
The images, strung together as a video, are available online at:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=208

ChemCam's laser has zapped more than 600 rock and soil targets on Mars since Curiosity landed in the planet's Gale Crater in August 2012.

"This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000 times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that is created," said ChemCam Deputy Principal Investigator Sylvestre Maurice, at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology, of France's National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Toulouse, France. "Each time the laser hits a target, the plasma light is caught and analyzed by ChemCam's spectrometers. What the new images add is confirmation that the size and shape of the spark are what we anticipated under Martian conditions."

Preliminary analysis of the ChemCam spectra from this target rock, appropriately named "Nova," indicates a composition rich in silicon, aluminum and sodium, beneath a dust layer poor in those elements. This is typical of rocks that Curiosity is encountering on its way toward Mount Sharp.

First Imaging of Laser-Induced Spark on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the camera on its arm on July 12, 2014, to catch the first images of sparks produced by the rover's laser being shot at a rock on Mars. The left image is from before the laser zapped this rock, called "Nova." The spark is at the center of the below image.



MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, said, "One of the reasons we took these images is that they allow the ChemCam folks to compare the plume to those they imaged on Earth. Also, MAHLI has captured images of other activities of Curiosity, for documentation purposes, and this was an opportunity to document the laser in action."
Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, developed, built and operates MAHLI. The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency (CNES), the University of Toulouse and France's National Center for Scientific Research.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Curiosity, visit these sites:
http://www.nasa.gov/msl
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/






Curiosity's ChemCam Examines Mars Rock Target 'Nova'

A Martian target rock called "Nova," shown here, displayed an increasing concentration of aluminum as a series of laser shots from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover penetrated through dust on the rock's surface.




http://www.youtube.com/v/r0cauXpMniw

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07.15.2014

Curiosity Finds Iron Meteorite on Mars



This rock encountered by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is an iron meteorite called "Lebanon," similar in shape and luster to iron meteorites found on Mars by the previous generation of rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Lebanon is about 2 yards or 2 meters wide (left to right, from this angle). The smaller piece in the foreground is called "Lebanon B."

This view combines a series of high-resolution circular images taken by the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument with color and context from rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam). The component images were taken during the 640th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (May 25, 2014).

The imaging shows angular shaped cavities on the surface of the rock. One possible explanation is that they resulted from preferential erosion along crystalline boundaries within the metal of the rock. Another possibility is that these cavities once contained olivine crystals, which can be found in a rare type of stony-iron meteorites called pallasites, thought to have been formed near the core-mantle boundary within an asteroid.

Iron meteorites are not rare among meteorites found on Earth, but they are less common than stony meteorites. On Mars, iron meteorites dominate the small number of meteorites that have been found. Part of the explanation could come from the resistance of iron meteorites to erosion processes on Mars.

ChemCam is one of 10 instruments in Curiosity's science payload. The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency (CNES), the University of Toulouse and the French national research agency (CNRS). More information about ChemCam is available at http://www.msl-chemcam.com . The rover's MastCam was built by and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.

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06.25.2014

Martian Rock and Dust Filling Studied with Laser and Camera



Scientists used the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in June 2014 to examine a Martian rock "shell" about one inch (two to three centimeters) across, embedded in fine-grained bedrock and with a dust-filled hollow interior. This graphic combines an image of the target, called "Winnipesaukee," with spectrographic results from using ChemCam's laser on a row of points including the rock, the matrix around it and the material filling it.

The image merges a high-resolution, black-and-white image from ChemCam's remote micro-imager and a color image form the telephoto-lens camera of Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). The ChemCam laser and camera atop of Curiosity's remote sensing mast were about 9 feet, 10 inches (3 meter) from Winnipesaukee when the instrument examined Winnipesaukee on the 654th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (June 8, 2014). Similar-appearing features have been seen previously in the mission, but this time ChemCam was able to provide chemical analysis of the structure. The instrument fired 30 laser shots at each of 10 locations indicated by black, red and green circles on the image. Three distinct types of materials were analyzed: the bedrock on each side of the structure, the "shell" material itself and the dust inside the void space. The colors of the lines on the graph below the image correspond to the colors of the circles marking the laser-shot locations.

Analysis of spectra from the bedrock (black circles) identified high abundances of oxides of silicon, aluminum and sodium, typical of a feldspathic composition. The material forming the "shell" (red circles) has a more basaltic or mafic composition, with higher iron and magnesium content. The dust (green circles) is almost certainly airborne material that accumulated in the void space. This dust contains a relatively high hydrogen (water) signature compared to other Martian materials, which is generally characteristic of the ubiquitous dust that forms a thin mantle on much of the surface.

Scientists are considering multiple hypotheses for how this hollow feature formed. Formation as a bubble or carapace of rock that was embedded in the surrounding sediment cannot be ruled out. One alternative considered more likely is that transport of fluids through the bedrock could produce pipe-like structures with a wall consisting of bedrock that either has reacted with the fluids or has been coated with other material. Another is that the feature formed due to cracks penetrating the bedrock, then a mineral cement filling the cracks, then wind erosion removing material from the center.

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08.01.2014

Sandy Martian Valleys in Curiosity's Near Future



The main map here shows the assortment of landforms near the location of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the rover's second anniversary of landing on Mars nears. The gold traverse line entering from upper right ends at Curiosity's position as of the 705th Martian day, or sol, of the mission on Mars (July 31, 2014). The inset map shows the mission's entire traverse from the landing on Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (Aug. 6, UTC) to Sol 705, and the remaining distance to long-term science destinations near Murray Buttes, at the base of Mount Sharp. The label "Aug. 5, 2013" indicates where Curiosity was one year after landing.

Curiosity spent much of July 2014 crossing an upland area called "Zabriskie Plateau," where embedded, sharp rocks presented hazards for the rover's wheels. The traverse line enters the main map at the rover's location as of Sol 692 (July 17, 2014). A near-term science destination is the "Pahrump Hills" feature near the lower left corner. Scientists anticipate that outcrop rock there may provide a preview of a geological unit that is part of the base of Mount Sharp, rather than floor of Gale Crater. Between the Sol 705 location and Pahrump Hills, the rover's anticipated route dips into sandy-floored valleys.

Scale bars are 50 meters (164 feet) on the main map and 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) on the inset map. The base images for the map are from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. For broader-context views of the area that Curiosity is crossing within Gale Crater, see http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16064 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/pia15687.

Before the first anniversary of the landing, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and operates Curiosity, achieved its main science objective of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Rock-powder samples drilled from two mudstone rocks at Yellowknife Bay and analyzed onboard yielded evidence for an ancient lakebed with mild water, the chemical elements needed for life and a mineral source of energy used by some Earth microbes.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

[Jason]

Thanks for keeping this thread rolling BT!!

[Charles Hunter]

Hey!  Its' about to enter Hidden Valley - think it will find some Ranch Dressing?

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http://www.youtube.com/v/g7wX-feyWac

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Click on the link to see interactive photos that vividly show the wear and tear of two years on Mars...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/20/6046609/its-hard-out-there-for-an-interplanetary-robot

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26203-curiosity-reaching-science-peak-after-years-of-driving.html#.VBbxuNrD-1s

Curiosity reaching science peak after years of driving
13:59 12 September 2014 by Lisa Grossman

The Mars rover Curiosity has finally reached the base of Mount Sharp, the Kilimanjaro-sized mountain it has been driving toward for much of the past two years.

"We have finally arrived at the far frontier we have sought for so long," said project scientist John Grotzinger at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in a press teleconference on 11 September. "This is where the core of the science mission really begins."

The rover touched down on the Red Planet in August 2012 in a region called Gale Crater, which was selected largely because of the 5-kilometre-high mountain at its centre. Mount Sharp (also known as Aeolis Mons) contains clays and sulphate minerals that don't form in dry conditions, suggesting that its layers of sediment were laid down in an ancient lake that filled the crater billions of years ago. That would make it a good site for the rover's primary mission: seeking signs that Mars may once have been hospitable to life.

But the first thing the rover did after landing was drive in the other direction. The science team was following hints that another region, called Yellowknife Bay, might have promising chemistry. "We hit the jackpot there," Grotzinger says. The region hosted rocky outcrops that were laid down by a flowing river, making it the first habitable environment discovered on Mars.

The team then turned the rover's wheels back to Mount Sharp, and it has been driving essentially ever since, with a few drilling stops along the way. So far Curiosity has covered more than 8 kilometres – and has seen some serious wear and tear on its wheels.

Now, the team says, the rover has finally arrived at the base of Mount Sharp. To spare the wheels, they will modify the planned route through the Pahrump Hills, – a landscape of buttes and scarps – and expect to begin drilling the mountain's layers within a week.

A rock called Bonanza King, which Curiosity tried to drill in late August, has already given them a preview of what they might find. The rock was too unstable to complete the drilling, but clearing the red dust off its surface revealed the same greenish-grey rock that proved fruitful at Yellowknife Bay. Compared with other Martian rocks studied, it also contained a lot of silica, which forms in water and is often associated with preservation of organic matter on Earth.

"We're excited about it because it does go in the right direction for us," Grotzinger says. "It means we're on to something new and we're optimistic that we are going to be able to talk about a science story in the next few months that involves water."

The long trek to Mount Sharp may have prompted some harsh words from a NASA review committee last week, which questioned whether the rover has been doing enough science to justify its $2.5 billion price tag. But Grotzinger says the team intends to carry on with the current plan, using the drill judiciously to test hypotheses, not just to see what's there.

"The principal recommendation of the panel is that we drive less and drill more," Grotzinger says. "I think that the recommendations of the review and what we want to do as a science team are going to align. We've now arrived at Mount Sharp, and we are going to do a lot more drilling."

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This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows the transition between the "Murray Formation," in which layers are poorly expressed and difficult to trace from orbit, and the hematite ridge, which is made up of continuous layers that can be traced laterally for hundreds of meters. Orbital data shows that this change in bedding style between the Murray formation and the hematite ridge is also accompanied by a major change in layer composition. NASA's Curiosity rover will be exploring this formation.

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11.18.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Second Time Through, Mars Rover Examines Chosen Rocks

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has returned to the bottom of a three-story-slope to conduct close-up examinations of targets identified by an initial scouting climb.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has completed a reconnaissance "walkabout" of the first outcrop it reached at the base of the mission's destination mountain and has begun a second pass examining selected rocks in the outcrop in more detail.

Exposed layers on the lower portion of Mount Sharp are expected to hold evidence about dramatic changes in the environmental evolution of Mars. That was a major reason NASA chose this area of Mars for this mission. The lowermost of these slices of time ascending the mountain includes a pale outcrop called "Pahrump Hills." It bears layers of diverse textures that the mission has been studying since Curiosity acquired a drilled sample from the outcrop in September.

In its first pass up this outcrop, Curiosity drove about 360 feet (110 meters), and scouted sites ranging about 30 feet (9 meters) in elevation. It evaluated potential study targets from a distance with mast-mounted cameras and a laser-firing spectrometer.

"We see a diversity of textures in this outcrop -- some parts finely layered and fine-grained, others more blocky with erosion-resistant ledges," said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Overlaid on that structure are compositional variations. Some of those variations were detected with our spectrometer. Others show themselves as apparent differences in cementation or as mineral veins. There's a lot to study here."

During a second pass up the outrcrop, the mission is using a close-up camera and spectrometer on the rover's arm to examine selected targets in more detail. The second-pass findings will feed into decisions about whether to drill into some target rocks during a third pass, to collect sample material for onboard laboratory analysis.

"The variations we've seen so far tell us that the environment was changing over time, both as the sediments were laid down and also after they hardened into bedrock," Vasavada said. "We have selected targets that we think give us the best chance of answering questions about how the sediments were deposited -- in standing water? flowing water? sand blowing in the wind? -- and about the composition during deposition and later changes."

The first target in the second pass is called "Pelona," a fine-grained, finely layered rock close to the September drilling target at the base of Pahrump Hills outcrop. The second is a more erosion-resistant ledge called "Pink Cliffs."

Before examining Pelona, researchers used Curiosity's wheels as a tool to expose a cross section of a nearby windblown ripple of dust and sand. One motive for this experiment was to learn why some ripples that Curiosity drove into earlier this year were more difficult to cross than anticipated.

While using the rover to investigate targets in Pahrump Hills, the rover team is also developing a work-around for possible loss of use of a device used for focusing the telescope on Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, the laser-firing spectrometer.

Diagnostic data from ChemCam suggest weakening of the instrument's smaller laser. This is a continuous wave laser used for focusing the telescope before the more powerful laser is fired. The main laser induces a spark on the target it hits; light from the spark is received though the telescope and analyzed with spectrometers to identify chemical elements in the target. If the smaller laser has become too weak to continue using, the ChemCam team plans to test an alternative method: firing a few shots from the main laser while focusing the telescope, before performing the analysis. This would take advantage of more than 2,000 autofocus sequences ChemCam has completed on Mars, providing calibration points for the new procedure.

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012, but before beginning the drive toward Mount Sharp, the rover spent much of the mission's first year productively studying an area much closer to the landing site, but in the opposite direction. The mission accomplished its science goals in that Yellowknife Bay area. Analysis of drilled rocks there disclosed an ancient lakebed environment that, more than three billion years ago, offered ingredients and a chemical energy gradient favorable for microbes, if any existed there.

Curiosity spent its second year driving more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Yellowknife Bay to the base of Mount Sharp, with pauses at a few science waypoints.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. 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/