RocketSTEM Issue #2 - April 2013 | Page 7

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. 05 05