After a treacherous journey, NASA’s Curiosity Mars probe has reached an area believed to have formed billions of years ago when the Red Planet’s waters disappeared.
This area of Mount Sharp Curiosity roams the land of Mars, rich in saline minerals that scientists believe were left behind when streams and ponds dried up. As such, this area could hold enticing clues as to how it works.
NASA has discovered saline minerals enriching this area of Mount Sharp Mars reconnaissance vehicle Years before Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012.
Related: Curiosity Rover: 15 Amazing Pictures From Mars (Gallery)
When Curiosity finally took a closer look at Mount Sharp’s topography, the rover uncovered a variety of rock types and watermarks of the past, including popcorn-textured nodules, briny minerals like magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate (including gypsum), and sodium chloride, which is table salt. ordinary.
After calculating the pressure on the rotary drill at the end of the probe’s 2m arm, which is used to crush rock samples for analysis, the Curiosity team selected a rock called “Canaima” to drill there and assemble Flight 36 the mission. drill sample.
“As before any exercise, we dusted ourselves off and then pitted down the surface of Kanaima,” said Cathia Zamora Garcia, Curiosity’s project manager. expression. “The lack of scratch marks or indentations was an indication that digging might be difficult.”
The team then came over to see if that posed a threat to Curiosity’s arm. Zamora Garcia explained that with a new drilling algorithm designed to reduce the use of percussion, a hammering motion used by drills to penetrate hard surfaces, they chose to go ahead and said no percussion was required.
The team will now analyze portions of the sample collected from Canaima using Curiosity’s chemistry and mineralogy instrument and will analyze the sample in the Mars instrument.
Curious summer road trip
To reach the sulphate-rich region, the Curiosity rover spent August trekking through a narrow strip of sand surrounded by the name Paraitepuy Pass. It took Curiosity more than a month to safely navigate this treacherous terrain that glitters between the high hills. Though the Paraitepuy Pass is mostly free of sharp rocks that can damage the rover’s wheels, sand can be dangerous for Curiosity. If its wheels lose traction, the rover could stall.
Rover drivers had to consider another challenge: the Martian sky was cut off from the surrounding hills, meaning Curiosity had to be carefully positioned so its antennas could point toward Earth and still remain in contact with it. Mars orbitals.
As the team carefully navigated this path, they were rewarded with some stunning photos from Curiosity’s mastcam, most notably a panoramic photo of the area taken on August 14th.
“We’ll be getting new images every morning and we’ll be in awe,” Elena Amador French, Curiosity’s science coordinator, which manages collaboration between science and engineering teams, said in the statement. “The sand hills were great. You can see perfect little ATV tracks on it. And the slopes were beautiful – we got really close to the walls.”
Although the Paraitepuy Pass has been cleared, Curiosity has a tough road ahead. This salty terrain brings its own set of challenges – in particular, the rover’s operations team must calculate rocky terrain that makes it difficult to place all six wheels of Curiosity on stable ground.
If Curiosity is not stable, operators do not risk opening the drill boom when it hits rough rock.
“The more important the scientific knowledge is, the more obstacles Mars puts in our way,” said Amador French.
Curiosity will continue to explore this region and prove that after 10 years on Mars the rover still has a lot of Earth to cover.
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