[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Scoping Out Next Study Area

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-104

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Scoping Out Next Study Area
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 03, 2014

On Wednesday, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drove the last 98 feet feet 
(30 meters) needed to arrive at a site planned since early 2013 as a destination 
for studying rock clues about ancient environments that may have been 
favorable for life.

The rover reached a vantage point for its cameras to survey four different 
types of rock intersecting in an area called "the Kimberley," after a 
region of western Australia.

"This is the spot on the map we've been headed for, on a little rise that 
gives us a great view for context imaging of the outcrops at the Kimberley," 
said Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. 
Rice is the science planning lead for what are expected to be several 
weeks of observations, sample-drilling and onboard laboratory analysis 
of the area's rocks.

With arrival at this location, Curiosity has driven at total of 3.8 miles 
(6.1 kilometers) since landing inside Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012.

The mission's investigations at the Kimberley are planned as the most 
extensive since Curiosity spent the first half of 2013 in an area called 
Yellowknife Bay. At Yellowknife Bay, the one-ton rover examined the first 
samples ever drilled from rocks on Mars and found the signature of an 
ancient lakebed environment providing chemical ingredients and energy 
necessary for life.

At the Kimberley and, later, at outcrops on the slope of Mount Sharp inside 
Gale Crater, researchers plan to use Curiosity's science instruments to 
learn more about habitable past conditions and environmental changes.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages 
the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington. The project designed and built Curiosity and operates the 
rover on Mars.

For more information about Curiosity, 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 at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on 
Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

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

2014-104