[meteorite-list] NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Nears Turning Point

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 14:59:30 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201306052159.r55LxU26021776_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-187

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Nears Turning Point
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 05, 2013

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission is approaching
its biggest turning point since landing its rover, Curiosity, inside
Mars' Gale Crater last summer.

Curiosity is finishing investigations in an area smaller than a football
field where it has been working for six months, and it will soon shift
to a distance-driving mode headed for an area about 5 miles (8
kilometers) away, at the base Mount Sharp.

In May, the mission drilled a second rock target for sample material and
delivered portions of that rock powder into laboratory instruments in
one week, about one-fourth as much time as needed at the first drilled
rock.

"We're hitting full stride," said Mars Science Laboratory Project
Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "We needed a more deliberate pace for all the first-time
activities by Curiosity since landing, but we won't have many more of
those."

No additional rock drilling or soil scooping is planned in the "Glenelg"
area that Curiosity entered last fall as the mission's first destination
after landing. To reach Glenelg, the rover drove east about a third of a
mile (500 meters) from the landing site. To reach the next destination,
Mount Sharp, Curiosity will drive toward the southwest for many months.

"We don't know when we'll get to Mount Sharp," Erickson said. "This
truly is a mission of exploration, so just because our end goal is Mount
Sharp doesn't mean we're not going to investigate interesting features
along the way."

Images of Mount Sharp taken from orbit and images Curiosity has taken
from a distance reveal many layers where scientists anticipate finding
evidence about how the ancient Martian environment changed and evolved.

While completing major first-time activities since landing, the mission
has also already accomplished its main science objective. Analysis of
rock powder from the first drilled rock target, "John Klein," provided
evidence that an ancient environment in Gale Crater had favorable
conditions for microbial life: the essential elemental ingredients,
energy and ponded water that was neither too acidic nor too briny.

The rover team chose a similar rock, "Cumberland," as the second
drilling target to provide a check for the findings at John Klein.
Scientists are analyzing laboratory-instrument results from portions of
the Cumberland sample. One new capability being used is to drive away
while still holding rock powder in Curiosity's sample-handling device to
supply additional material to instruments later if desired by the
science team.

For the drill campaign at Cumberland, steps that each took a day or more
at John Klein could be combined into a single day's sequence of
commands. "We used the experience and lessons from our first drilling
campaign, as well as new cached sample capabilities, to do the second
drill campaign far more efficiently," said sampling activity lead Joe
Melko of JPL. "In addition, we increased use of the rover's autonomous
self-protection. This allowed more activities to be strung together
before the ground team had to check in on the rover."

The science team has chosen three targets for brief observations before
Curiosity leaves the Glenelg area: the boundary between bedrock areas of
mudstone and sandstone, a layered outcrop called "Shaler" and a pitted
outcrop called "Point Lake."

JPL's Joy Crisp, deputy project scientist for Curiosity, said "Shaler
might be a river deposit. Point Lake might be volcanic or sedimentary. A
closer look at them could give us better understanding of how the rocks
we sampled with the drill fit into the history of how the environment
changed."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. For more about the mission, visit:
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 and Twitter at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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

2013-187
Received on Wed 05 Jun 2013 05:59:30 PM PDT