[Updates] Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

[RGClark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RGClark

 I missed this story when it came out last month:

Weather On Mars Surprisingly Warm, Curiosity Rover Finds.
by SPACE.com Staff
Date: 01 October 2012 Time: 07:00 AM ET

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"If this warm trend carries on into summer, we might even be able to foresee temperatures in the 20s [Celsius], and that would be really exciting from a habitability point of view," Gómez said. "In the daytimes, we could see temperatures high enough for liquid water on a regular basis. But it’s too soon to tell whether that will happen or whether these warm temperatures are just a blip.”
http://www.space.com/17828-mars-weat...discovery.html

Bob Clark

The Winds Still Blow in Thin but Active Martian Atmosphere.

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=33999&cpage=1

It is notable that daytime ground temperatures are above the air temperatures. Eyeballing the ground temperature plot, I estimate the highest ground temperature reached as about 15 C, about 60 F. Depending on the amount of water vapor in the air near the surface this could allow small amounts of water to condense to liquid for short periods.
It would be interesting to find out if the relative humidity would allow water to condense on the surface in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Bob Clark

[RGClark]

SwRI study finds liquid water flowing above and below frozen Alaskan sand dunes, hints of a wetter Mars.
San Antonio TX (SPX) Apr 01, 2013

Quote:

Recent measurements of air temperature and pressure recorded by the Mars Science Laboratory on the Curiosity Rover, which landed in Gale Crater last August, suggest that liquid water potentially would be stable there during the warmest portion of each day.
http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/SwR..._Mars_999.html

Bob Clark

[orb]

SPACE.com: Mars Rover Curiosity Gears Up for Epic Drive and Drilling

[orb]

NASA JPL: NASA Curiosity Rover Wins Prestigious Awards

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NASA / NASA JPL:
NASA Curiosity Rover Team Selects Second Drilling Target on Mars

May 09, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. -- The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days.

This second drilling target, called "Cumberland," lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) west of the rock where Curiosity's drill first touched Martian stone in February. Curiosity took the first rock sample ever collected on Mars from that rock, called "John Klein." The rover found evidence of an ancient environment favorable for microbial life. Both rocks are flat, with pale veins and a bumpy surface. They are embedded in a layer of rock on the floor of a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay."

This second drilling is intended to confirm results from the first drilling, which indicated the chemistry of the first powdered sample from John Klein was much less oxidizing than that of a soil sample the rover scooped up before it began drilling.

Click on images for details
This map shows the location of "Cumberland," the second rock-drilling target for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, in relation to the rover's first drilling target, "John Klein," within the southwestern lobe of a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay." Cumberland, like John Klein, is a patch of flat-lying bedrock with pale veins and bumpy surface texture. The bumpiness is due to erosion-resistant nodules within the rock, which have been identified as concretions resulting from the action of mineral-laden water. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona	This patch of bedrock, called "Cumberland," has been selected as the second target for drilling by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The rover has the capability to collect powdered material from inside the target rock and analyze that powder with laboratory instruments. The favored location for drilling into Cumberland is in the lower right portion of the image.

Curiosity Rover Report (May 9, 2013): 'Spring Break' Over: Commanding Resumes - YouTube

Curiosity Rover Report (May 9, 2013): 'Spring Break' Over: Commanding Resumes - YouTube

"We know there is some cross-contamination from the previous sample each time," said Dawn Sumner, a long-term planner for Curiosity's science team at the University of California at Davis. "For the Cumberland sample, we expect to have most of that cross-contamination come from a similar rock, rather than from very different soil."

Although Cumberland and John Klein are very similar, Cumberland appears to have more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps. The bumps are concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water soaked the rock long ago. Analysis of a sample containing more material from these concretions could provide information about the variability within the rock layer that includes both John Klein and Cumberland.

Mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., recently finished upgrading Curiosity's operating software following a four-week break. The rover continued monitoring the Martian atmosphere during the break, but the team did not send any new commands because Mars and the sun were positioned in such a way the sun could have blocked or corrupted commands sent from Earth.

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Phys.org: Curiosity rover team selects second drilling target on Mars

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NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Report - May 16, 2013

NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Report - May 16, 2013