[meteorite-list] Curiosity Rover Fully Analyzes First Martian Soil Samples

[Ron Baalke]

Dec. 3, 2012

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

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

Nancy Neal Jones 
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 
301-286-0039 
nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 12-415

NASA MARS ROVER FULLY ANALYZES FIRST MARTIAN SOIL SAMPLES

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has used its full 
array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and 
found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur 
and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed 
up in samples Curiosity's arm delivered to an analytical laboratory 
inside the rover. 

Detection of the substances during this early phase of the mission 
demonstrates the laboratory's capability to analyze diverse soil and 
rock samples over the next two years. Scientists also have been 
verifying the capabilities of the rover's instruments. 

The specific soil sample came from a drift of windblown dust and sand 
called "Rocknest." The site lies in a relatively flat part of Gale 
Crater still miles away from the rover's main destination on the 
slope of a mountain called Mount Sharp. The rover's laboratory 
includes the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite and the Chemistry 
and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. SAM used three methods to analyze 
gases given off from the dusty sand when it was heated in a tiny 
oven. One class of substances SAM checks for is organic compounds -- 
carbon-containing chemicals that can be ingredients for life. 

"We have no definitive detection of Martian organics at this point, 
but we will keep looking in the diverse environments of Gale Crater," 
said SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space 
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 

Curiosity's APXS instrument and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) 
camera on the rover's arm confirmed Rocknest has chemical-element 
composition and textural appearance similar to sites visited by 
earlier NASA Mars rovers Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity. 
Curiosity's team selected Rocknest as the first scooping site because 
it has fine sand particles suited for scrubbing interior surfaces of 
the arm's sample-handling chambers. Sand was vibrated inside the 
chambers to remove residue from Earth. MAHLI close-up images of 
Rocknest show a dust-coated crust one or two sand grains thick, 
covering dark, finer sand. 

"Active drifts on Mars look darker on the surface," said MAHLI 
Principal Investigator Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems in 
San Diego."This is an older drift that has had time to be inactive, 
letting the crust form and dust accumulate on it." 

CheMin's examination of Rocknest samples found the composition is 
about half common volcanic minerals and half non-crystalline 
materials such as glass. SAM added information about ingredients 
present in much lower concentrations and about ratios of isotopes. 
Isotopes are different forms of the same element and can provide 
clues about environmental changes. The water seen by SAM does not 
mean the drift was wet. Water molecules bound to grains of sand or 
dust are not unusual, but the quantity seen was higher than 
anticipated. 

SAM tentatively identified the oxygen and chlorine compound 
perchlorate. This is a reactive chemical previously found in arctic 
Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix Lander. Reactions with other chemicals 
heated in SAM formed chlorinated methane compounds -- one-carbon 
organics that were detected by the instrument. The chlorine is of 
Martian origin, but it is possible the carbon may be of Earth origin, 
carried by Curiosity and detected by SAM's high sensitivity design. 

"We used almost every part of our science payload examining this 
drift," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the 
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The synergies of the 
instruments and richness of the data sets give us great promise for 
using them at the mission's main science destination on Mount Sharp." 

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess 
whether areas inside Gale Crater ever offered a habitable environment 
for microbes. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages 
the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

For more information about Curiosity and other Mars mission, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/mars 

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: 

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity 

and 

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity 
	
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