Curiosity snapped this self portrait (right) on Feb. 8 with the MAHLI camera while sitting on
flat sedimentary rocks of mudstone at the John Klein outcrop.
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo
will remain in the Yellowknife Bay
area for several additional weeks
or months to fully characterize the
area. The rover will also conduct at
least one more drilling campaign to
try and replicate the results, check
for organic molecules and search
for new discoveries.
The Curiosity science team
believes that the current work area
at Yellowknife Bay experienced
repeated percolation of flowing
liquid water billions of years ago
when Mars was warmer and wetter
- and therefore was more hospitable
to the possible evolution of life.
So far Curiosity has snapped more
than 48,000 images, traveled nearly
0.5 miles, conducted 25 analysis
with the APXS spectrometer and
fired over 12,000 laser shoots with
the ChemCam instrument.
Eventually,
the
six-wheeled
mega rover will set off on the nearly
year long trek to the base of Mount
Sharp.
The resilient, solar powered
Opportunity robot is roving around
Martian terrain where she proved
that potentially life sustaining liquid
water once flowed billions of years
ago when the planet was warmer.
She is investigating the inboard
edge of Cape York - a hilly segment
of the eroded rim of 14 mile (22 km)
wide Endeavour Crater, featuring
terrain with older rocks than
previously inspected and unlike
anything studied before. It’s a
place more than three billion years
old that no one ever dared dream
of reaching prior to launch in the
summer of 2003.
Opportunity has accomplished
breakthrough science by finding
deposits of phyllosilicates - clay
minerals stemming from an earlier
epoch when liquid water flowed
on Mars eons ago and perhaps
may have been more favorable
to sustaining microbial life because
they form in more neutral pH water.
They have never before been
analyzed up close on the Martian
www.RocketSTEM.org
surface; and have also just been
discovered by NASA’s new Curiosity
rover at Gale Crater.
“We have found phyllosilicates
at the Whitewater Lake area around
Cape York, said Squyres. “It’s like a
whole new mission since we arrived
at Cape York.” Opportunity also
discovered additional hydrated
mineral veins at Whitewater Lake,
in addition to those found earlier at
a spot named Homestake.
Opportunity will continue to
explore around the crater rim.
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