[meteorite-list] Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:46:56 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201210222046.q9MKkuCI025261_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-332

Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 22, 2012

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shook a scoopful of dusty sand inside its
sample-handling mechanism on Sol 75 (Oct. 21, 2012) as the third
scrubbing of interior surfaces of the mechanism. The rover team is
instructing the rover to deliver a sieved sample from this scoopful --
the mission's fourth -- onto Curiosity's observation tray on Oct. 22 and
plans to analyze another sample from the same scoopful with the
Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument this week.

Curiosity collected this fourth scoop of soil on Sol 74 (Oct. 20). A
later scoop will become the first delivered to the Sample Analysis at
Mars (SAM) instrument. While continuing with scooping activities at the
"Rocknest" site, the rover also has been examining surroundings with the
Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mast Camera (Mastcam) instruments,
and monitoring environmental conditions with the Radiation Assessment
Detector (RAD), Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and
Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instruments of its science payload.

Sol 75, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 8:58 a.m.
Oct. 22, PDT (11:58 a.m., EDT).

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2012-332
Received on Mon 22 Oct 2012 04:46:56 PM PDT