For the past year, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traveling thru a transition zone from a clay-rich set apart to one crammed with a salty mineral known as sulfate. While the science crew centered the clay-rich set apart and the sulfate-weighted down one for proof every can offer about Mars’ watery past, the transition zone is proving to be scientifically charming as neatly. With out a doubt, this transition may perchance per chance goal provide the file of a major shift in Mars’ climate billions of years ago that scientists are factual starting to glean.
The clay minerals fashioned when lakes and streams once rippled all over Gale Crater, depositing sediment at what is now the rotten of Mount Interesting, the three-mile-huge (5-kilometer-huge) mountain whose foothills Curiosity has been ascending since 2014. Higher on the mountain within the transition zone, Curiosity’s observations mumble that the streams dried into trickles and sand dunes fashioned above the lake sediments.
“We no longer gaze the lake deposits that we noticed for years lower on Mount Interesting,” mentioned Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s venture scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “As a change, we gaze heaps of proof of drier climates, be pleased dry dunes that every infrequently had streams running around them. That is a huge commerce from the lakes that persisted for in all likelihood millions of years sooner than.”
As the rover climbs better thru the transition zone, it is detecting much less clay and extra sulfate. Curiosity will soon drill the final rock sample it will take in this zone, providing a extra detailed glimpse into the changing mineral composition of these rocks.
Distinctive geologic aspects additionally stand out in this zone. The hills within the set apart probably began in a dry ambiance of handsome, wind-swept sand dunes, hardening into rock over time. Interspersed within the stays of these dunes are diverse sediments carried by water, in all likelihood deposited in ponds or itsy-bitsy streams that after wove amongst the dunes. These sediments now appear as erosion-resistant stacks of flaky layers, be pleased one nicknamed “The Prow.”
Making the parable richer but extra sophisticated is the info that there had been multiple intervals whereby groundwater ebbed and flowed over time, leaving a jumble of poser pieces for Curiosity’s scientists to assemble into an factual timeline.
Ten Years On, Going Solid
Curiosity will bear fun its 10th year on Mars Aug. 5. While the rover is displaying its age after a full decade of exploring, nothing has prevented it from persevering with its ascent.
On June 7, Curiosity went into protected mode after detecting a temperature reading on an instrument support an eye on box within the physique of the rover that used to be warmer than expected. Protected mode occurs when a spacecraft senses a be troubled and robotically shuts down all nonetheless its most a have to-bear capabilities in advise that engineers can assess the device.
Even if Curiosity exited protected mode and returned to common operations two days later, JPL’s engineers are unruffled examining the explicit motive at the support of the device. They suspect protected mode used to be introduced on after a temperature sensor offered an unsuitable measurement, and there isn’t very any mark it will drastically bear an affect on rover operations since backup temperature sensors may perchance per chance perchance also be sure that the electronics within the rover physique are no longer getting too sizzling.
The rover’s aluminum wheels are additionally displaying indicators of wear. On June 4, the engineering crew commanded Curiosity to carry unusual photos of its wheels—something it had been doing every 3,281 feet (1,000 meters) to check their overall neatly being.
The crew found that the left middle wheel had broken one of its grousers, the zig-zagging treads alongside Curiosity’s wheels. This particular wheel already ha