Curiosity marches on
Click for original image.
The science team for the Mars rover Curiosity has been moving the rover as fast as it can in order to get to the intriguing boxwork geology about a half mile to the west and slightly higher on Mount Sharp.
The image to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken today by the rover’s left navigation camera, and looks downhill to the north from within the parallel canyon Curiosity entered earlier this week. Because the Martian atmosphere was especially clear at the time, the mountains that form the rim of Gale Crater are quite distinct, 20 to 30 miles away. The view down the canyon also provides a vista of the crater’s floor, more than 3,000 feet below.
In the past two Martian days the science team has had the rover climb uphill a total of 364 feet, a remarkably fast pace considering the rocky nature of the terrain. It appears the engineers have done a spectacular job refining the rover’s software so that it is possible for it to pick its way autonomously through this minefield of rocks, and do so without subjecting its already damaged wheels to more damage.
Click for interactive map.
The blue dot on the overview map to the right marks the position. The yellow lines indicate the area covered by the picture above. The red dotted lines indicates the original planned route, now abandoned. The green dotted line is my guess as to the route the rover will take to get to the boxwork and then beyond.
Based on the present pace, Curiosity should reach the nearest boxwork features within a week. Though the science team has not said how much time they will spend studying this geology, expect them to remain there for at least three months, especially as there are several different patches of boxwork to explore. If they decide to drill a core and do some analysis, expect that time to be twice as long.
Beyond that the route up the mountain in this particular canyon appears largely clear. The views as Curiosity climbs should thus become even more spectacular as it gains more altitude.
Getting to the peak of Mount Sharp however is still going to take years. Even though Curiosity has climbed more than 3,000 feet, the peak remains more than 15,000 feet higher up, and more than 25 miles away.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
The science team for the Mars rover Curiosity has been moving the rover as fast as it can in order to get to the intriguing boxwork geology about a half mile to the west and slightly higher on Mount Sharp.
The image to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken today by the rover’s left navigation camera, and looks downhill to the north from within the parallel canyon Curiosity entered earlier this week. Because the Martian atmosphere was especially clear at the time, the mountains that form the rim of Gale Crater are quite distinct, 20 to 30 miles away. The view down the canyon also provides a vista of the crater’s floor, more than 3,000 feet below.
In the past two Martian days the science team has had the rover climb uphill a total of 364 feet, a remarkably fast pace considering the rocky nature of the terrain. It appears the engineers have done a spectacular job refining the rover’s software so that it is possible for it to pick its way autonomously through this minefield of rocks, and do so without subjecting its already damaged wheels to more damage.
Click for interactive map.
The blue dot on the overview map to the right marks the position. The yellow lines indicate the area covered by the picture above. The red dotted lines indicates the original planned route, now abandoned. The green dotted line is my guess as to the route the rover will take to get to the boxwork and then beyond.
Based on the present pace, Curiosity should reach the nearest boxwork features within a week. Though the science team has not said how much time they will spend studying this geology, expect them to remain there for at least three months, especially as there are several different patches of boxwork to explore. If they decide to drill a core and do some analysis, expect that time to be twice as long.
Beyond that the route up the mountain in this particular canyon appears largely clear. The views as Curiosity climbs should thus become even more spectacular as it gains more altitude.
Getting to the peak of Mount Sharp however is still going to take years. Even though Curiosity has climbed more than 3,000 feet, the peak remains more than 15,000 feet higher up, and more than 25 miles away.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Good hiking spot.
Very interesting article in Science about how nearly pure samples of the iron carbonate (FeCO2) mineral siderite have been detected by Curiosity at several locations along its recent track. Now, non-iron carbonate (Mg, et al.) have been found previously, but as they say: “These properties have been interpreted as indicating that the dominant mode of carbonate mineral formation on Mars is direct, possibly hydrothermal, replacement of basaltic minerals rather than sedimentary processes.”
Given the new evidence however, “The abundance and composition of the carbonates in the drill samples indicates a sedimentary pathway for carbonate formation and preservation on Mars. Siderite has been theoretically predicted to be a primary, early-forming sedimentary mineral on Mars.”
Moreover, as the Editor’s Summary at the beginning points out, “If there are similar abundances of carbonate in other sulfate-rich layers across Mars, then those layers may contain a substantial reservoir of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere. The carbonates found by the authors have partially decomposed, returning some carbon dioxide to the atmosphere: an ancient carbon cycle.”
Excuse me, siderite is FeCO3.