[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Trek Toward Mount Sharp

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2013 14:55:21 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201307082155.r68LtLLR021960_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-215

Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Trek Toward Mount Sharp
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 08, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - With drives on July 4 and July 7, NASA's Mars rover
Curiosity has departed its last science target in the "Glenelg" area and
commenced a many-month overland journey to the base of the mission's
main destination, Mount Sharp.

The rover finished close-up investigation of a target sedimentary
outcrop called "Shaler" last week. On July 4, it drove 59 feet (18
meters) away from Shaler. On July 7, a second drive added another 131
feet (40 meters) on the trip toward a destination about 5 miles (8
kilometers) away, the entry to the lower layers of Mount Sharp.

Mount Sharp, in the middle of Gale Crater, exposes many layers where
scientists anticipate finding evidence about how the ancient Martian
environment changed and evolved. In the Glenelg area, where Curiosity
worked for the first half of 2013, the rover found evidence for an
ancient wet environment that had conditions favorable for microbial
life. This means the mission already accomplished its main science
objective.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built
the project's Curiosity rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook
at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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

2012-215
Received on Mon 08 Jul 2013 05:55:21 PM PDT