[meteorite-list] MRO Spies Curiosity Mars Rover Near Martian Butte

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-116

NASA Mars Orbiter Spies Rover Near Martian Butte
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 16, 2014

Scientists using NASA's Curiosity Mars rover are eyeing a rock layer surrounding 
the base of a small butte, called "Mount Remarkable," as a target for 
investigating with tools on the rover's robotic arm.

The rover works near this butte in an image taken on April 11 by the High 
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter. It is available at: 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18081

A rover's-eye view of Mount Remarkable and surroundings as seen from Curiosity's 
position in that HiRISE image is available in a mosaic of images from 
Curiosity's Navigation Camera (Navcam), at: 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18083

The butte stands about 16 feet (5 meters) high. Curiosity's science team 
refers to the rock layer surrounding the base of Mount Remarkable as the 
"middle unit" because its location is intermediate between rocks that 
form buttes in the area and lower-lying rocks that show a pattern of striations.

Depending on what the mission scientists learn from a close-up look at 
the rock and identification of chemical elements in it, a site on this 
middle unit may become the third rock that Curiosity samples with its 
drill. The rover carries laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder 
collected by the drill. The mission's first two drilled samples, in an 
area called Yellowknife Bay near Curiosity's landing site, yielded evidence 
last year for an ancient lakebed environment with available energy and 
ingredients favorable for microbial life.

The rover's current location, where multiple types of rocks are exposed 
close together, is called "the Kimberley." Here 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 

2014-116