[meteorite-list] NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Sandstone Slab on Mars

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-142

NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Sandstone Slab on Mars
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 06, 2014

Portions of rock powder collected by the hammering drill on NASA's Curiosity 
Mars rover from a slab of Martian sandstone will be delivered to the rover's 
internal instruments.

Rover team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., 
received confirmation early today (Tuesday) of Curiosity's third successful 
acquisition of a drilled rock sample, following the drilling Monday evening 
(PDT). The fresh hole in the rock target "Windjana," visible in images 
from the rover, is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter and about 2.6 
inches (6.5 centimeters) deep.

The full-depth hole for sample collection is close to a shallower test 
hole drilled last week in the same rock, which gave researchers a preview 
of the interior material as tailings around the hole.

"The drill tailings from this rock are darker-toned and less red than 
we saw at the two previous drill sites," said Jim Bell of Arizona State 
University, Tempe, deputy principal investigator for Curiosity's Mast 
Camera (Mastcam). "This suggests that the detailed chemical and mineral 
analysis that will be coming from Curiosity's other instruments could 
reveal different materials than we've seen before. We can't wait to find 
out!"

The mission's two previous rock-drilling sites, at mudstone targets in 
the Yellowknife Bay area, yielded evidence last year of an ancient lakebed 
environment with key chemical elements and a chemical energy source that 
long ago provided conditions favorable for microbial life. The rover's 
current location is at a waypoint called "The Kimberley," about 2.5 miles 
(4 kilometers) southwest of Yellowknife Bay, and along the route toward 
the mission's long-term destination on lower slopes of Mount Sharp.

Sample material from Windjana will be sieved, then delivered in coming 
days to onboard laboratories for determining the mineral and chemical 
composition: the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) and the 
Sample Analysis at Mars instrument (SAM). The analysis of the sample may 
continue as the rover drives on from The Kimberley toward Mount Sharp. 
One motive for the team's selection of Windjana for drilling is to analyze 
the cementing material that holds together sand-size grains in this sandstone.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient 
habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, built the rover 
and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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 

2014-142