Updates Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

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Universe Today: Scooping Mars – Shaken Not Stirred ! – Color Video

 

[N_Molson]

Good Vibrations ! :RnR1:

 

[IronRain]

NASA JPL:

View of Curiosity's First Scoop Also Shows Bright Object

This image from the right Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a scoop full of sand and dust lifted by the rover's first use of the scoop on its robotic arm. In the foreground, near the bottom of the image, a bright object is visible on the ground. The object might be a piece of rover hardware.

This image was taken during the mission's 61st Martian day, or sol (Oct. 7, 2012), the same sol as the first scooping. After examining Sol 61 imaging, the rover team decided to refrain from using the arm on Sol 62 (Oct. 8). Instead, the rover was instructed to acquire additional imaging of the bright object, on Sol 62, to aid the team in assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities.

For scale, the scoop is 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) wide, 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) long.

 

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SPACE.com: 'Bright Object' On Mars Actually Plastic from Curiosity Rover

NASA / JPL: Object Likely Benign Plastic from Curiosity Rover

Universe Today: Shiny Object on Mars Update: Likely ‘Benign’ Plastic

 

[Hartmann]

A piece of duct tape ?

 

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Discover Magazine - Bad Astronomy: Curiosity got shaved?

Discovery News: Mystery Mars Object is Curiosity's Litter


The Planetary Society Blog: Pretty picture: Late afternoon in Gale Crater

As the Sun set on sol 49 (September 25, 2012), Curiosity used its Navigation Camera to take a panoramic view of the dramatically lit landscape. In this version, Damien Bouic has colorized the grayscale Navcam data with color thumbnails from a Mastcam panorama taken under higher sun conditions.
NASA / JPL / MSSS / Damien Bouic​

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Noticed it too, while looking at the raw Chemcam images yesterday.
There's a nice enhanced image here;

Well, "imagination at work" as to what it actually is.
Even though it may plastic from the rover, I hope they'll analyze it's composition properly...

 

[N_Molson]

As the Sun set on sol 49 (September 25, 2012), Curiosity used its Navigation Camera to take a panoramic view of the dramatically lit landscape.

So beautiful... :blink:

 

[Screamer7]

Quotes from Discover magazine:

"It really looks like an insect wing, in one picture in the links. There’s a socket at one end, and it spreads and flows away from there, then tapers off. Which could be an earth-insect wing that got in the craft, somehow. Or it could be a Martian insect!

What it also looks like is a conchoidal fracture. Some micrometeoroid hit the edge of something in the craft, and blew off a sliver. The impact is the socket, the pressure flowed from there, and a flake peeled off.

Or it could be that it’s a flake of Martian mica, or some similar mineral, which was flaked off by an impact, and which was carried by the wind a long way.

Or maybe it’s a Martian maple pod.

Whatever it really is, we be can be sure that somebody is going to claim that there’s a coverup of its “real” nature.

Interesting."

:facepalm:

 

[NoJoe]

Here's a wonderfully high-res photo of the piece of plastic.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00065/mhli/0065MH0055000002R0_DXXX.jpg

It still blows me away that Curiosity is able to take such incredible images OF MARS!

--NoJoe

 

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NASA / JPL:

• Work Resumes with First Scooped Sample
  
  
• Mars Rock Touched by NASA Curiosity has Surprises

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Click on images for details​

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Target: Jake Matijevic Rock​

This image shows where NASA's Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study a rock known as "Jake Matijevic."

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

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High-Resolution View of Cross-Section Through a Mars Ripple​

This image shows the wall of a scuffmark NASA's Curiosity made in a windblown ripple of Martian sand with its wheel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

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Too Big for the Sieve​

In this image, the scoop on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the larger soil particles that were too big to filter through a sample-processing sieve that is porous only to particles less than 0.006 inches (150 microns) across.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

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Sand Filtered through Curiosity's Sieve​

This image shows fine sand from Mars that was filtered by NASA's Curiosity rover as part of its first "decontamination" exercise.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

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Thanks for the Scrub​

This image from Curiosity's Mast Camera shows NASA's Curiosity rover just after discarding a soil sample as part of its first "decontamination" exercise.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

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Teasing out Mineral Compositions​

This graphic made from data obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum of data obtained by the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, plus peaks for sodium and potassium, for four observation points on the rock "Jake Matijevic," which intrigued scientists.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/IRAP​

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Likely Pyroxene Mineral Identified in 'Jake'​

This plot shows how an observation point in the rock "Jake Matijevic" has a composition consistent with the mineral pyroxene, according to an investigation by the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/IRAP/SSI​

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What's in Jake?​

The graph shows the abundances of elements in the Martian rock "Jake Matijevic" (black line) and a calibration target (red line) as detected by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Guelph/CSA​

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Different Jake Compositions at Fine Scale​

This animated graphic represents compositions indicated by 350 spectra, or analyses of laser plasma light, observed on the rock "Jake Matijevic" by the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/IRAP/UNM​

Science Daily:

• NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity: Work Resumes With First Scooped Sample
  
  
• Mars Rock Touched by NASA Curiosity Has Surprises

SPACE.com:

• Curiosity Rover Resumes Eyeing 1st Scoop of Mars Dirt
  
  
• Curiosity Rover's Pet Mars Rock 'Jake' Unlike Any Seen on Red Planet

The Planetary Society Blog: Pretty panoramas: Curiosity's scenic views of distant hills

A mosaic of three Mastcam-100 images taken on sol 50 facing northeast. There is no sky visible in this view; occupying the distance is Gale's crater rim.
NASA / JPL / MSSS / Emily Lakdawalla

A mosaic of three Mastcam-100 images taken on sol 51 facing southeast. There is no sky visible in this view; occupying the distance is Gale's crater rim.
NASA / JPL / MSSS / Emily Lakdawalla

Part of the sol 50 Navcam panorama, with the locations of two Mastcam panoramas highlighted.
NASA / JPL / Damien Bouic​

Universe Today: Stunning New Panorama Shows the Hazy Distant Hills of Mars

RIA Novosti: Curiosity-Studied Mars Rock More Varied than Expected

Discovery News: Curiosity Discovers 'Applejack Liquor' Mars Rock

Aviation Week: Curiosity Finds Rock With Earth-like Chemistry

Florida Today: Curiosity examines Earth-like rock

Discover Magazine - Bad Astronomy: Wheels on Mars

 

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The Planetary Society Blog: First science reports from Curiosity's APXS and ChemCam: Petrology on Jake Matijevic

Curiosity's Location During First Scooping​

 

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NASA JPL:
Curiosity Preparing for Second Scoop

October 12, 2012

On Sol 65 (Oct. 11, 2012) of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed several activities in preparation for collecting its second scoop of soil. Like the first scoop, the next will come from a ripple of sand and dust at "Rocknest," and will be used for cleaning interior surfaces of the sample-handling chambers on the arm.

The Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) tool on the end of arm shook out remnants of the first scoopful and posed for camera inspection to verify it was emptied. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) moved close some loose material on the ground to get a good look. Seeing more detail in the object will help engineers finish assessing whether this loose material from the spacecraft poses any concern for future operations. A raw image from that MAHLI activity is at http://1.usa.gov/Qgs5ha.

Sol 65, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, will end at 2:22 a.m. Oct. 12, PDT (5:22 a.m., EDT).

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ScienceDaily: Mars Rover Curiosity Preparing for Second Scoop

 

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NASA JPL:
Rover's Second Scoop Discarded, Third Scoop Commanded

October 15, 2012

Commands will be sent to Curiosity today instructing the rover to collect a third scoop of soil from the "Rocknest" site of windblown Martian sand and dust. Pending evaluation of this Sol 69 (Oct. 15, 2012) scooping, a sample from the scoopful is planned as the first sample for delivery -- later this week -- to one of the rover's internal analytical instruments, the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. A later scoopful will become the first solid sample for delivery to the rover's other internal analytical instrument, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

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Click on images for details​

| This image contributed to an interpretation by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity science team that some of the bright particles on the ground near the rover are native Martian material. Other light-toned material nearby (see PIA16230) has been assessed as small debris from the spacecraft.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

| This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a small bright object on the ground beside the rover at the "Rocknest" site. The object is just below the center of this image. It is about half an inch (1.3 centimeters) long. The rover team has assessed this object as debris from the spacecraft, possibly from the events of landing on Mars.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

The rover's second scoopful, collected on Sol 66 (Oct. 12), was intentionally discarded on Sol 67 due to concern about particles of bright material seen in the hole dug by the scooping. Other small pieces of bright material in the Rocknest area have been assessed as debris from the spacecraft. The science team did not want to put spacecraft material into the rover's sample-processing mechanisms. Confidence for going ahead with the third scooping was based on new assessment that other bright particles in the area are native Martian material. One factor in that consideration is seeing some bright particles embedded in clods of Martian soil. Further investigations of the bright particles are planned, including some imaging in the Sol 69 plan.

Sol 69, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, will end at 5:01 a.m. Oct. 16, PDT (8:01 a.m., EDT).

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Discovery News: Curiosity Takes Second Mars Scoop for Dust Bath

Universe Today: Mars rover Scooping in Search of Pristine material at Rocknest

 

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NASA / NASA JPL:
Mars Soil Sample Delivered for Analysis Inside Rover

October 18, 2012

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has ingested its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rover, a capability at the core of the two-year mission.

The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument is analyzing this sample to determine what minerals it contains.

"We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample," said Curiosity's project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "This instrument gives us a more definitive mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction. Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the environmental conditions under which they form."

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Click on images for details​

| | Three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are visible in this image taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera during the mission's 69th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 15, 2012).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech​

| The robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity delivered a sample of Martian soil to the rover's observation tray for the first time during the mission's 70th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 16, 2012).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

| This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest."

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

The sample is a sieved portion -- about as much material as in a baby aspirin -- from the third scoop collected by Curiosity as a windblown patch of dusty sand called "Rocknest." The rover's robotic arm delivered the sample to CheMin's opened inlet funnel on the rover's deck on Oct. 17.

The previous day, the rover shook the scooped material inside sample-processing chambers to scrub internal surfaces of any residue carried from Earth. One earlier scoopful was also used for cleaning. Additional repetitions of this cleaning method will be used before delivery of a future sample to the rover's other internal analytic instrument, the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation, which studies samples' chemistry.

Various small bits of light-toned material on the ground at Rocknest have affected the rover's activities in the past several days. One piece about half an inch (1.3 centimeters) long was noticed on Oct. 7. The rover team postponed use of the robotic arm for two days while investigating this object, and assessed it to be debris from the spacecraft.

Images taken after Curiosity collected its second scoop of Rocknest material on Oct. 12 showed smaller bits of light-toned material in the hole dug by the scooping action. This led to discarding that scoopful rather than using it to scrub the processing mechanisms. Scientists assess these smaller, bright particles to be native Martian material, not from the spacecraft.

"We plan to learn more both about the spacecraft material and about the smaller, bright particles," said Curiosity Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. "We will finish determining whether the spacecraft material warrants concern during future operations. The native Mars particles become fodder for the mission's scientific studies."

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CBS News Space: Rover begins soil analysis; scientists ponder bright fragment

Universe Today: New ‘Shiny’ Objects Found by Curiosity Rover Are Likely Indigenous

SPACE.com: Yum! Curiosity Rover Swallows 1st Mars Sample, Finds Odd Bright Stuff

Discovery News: Yum! Curiosity Eats Mars Dirt

Florida Today:

• Scientists investigate puzzling bright speck on Mars
  
  
• Shiny bit catches eye of Curiosity scientists

 

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Universe Today: Rover Update: Sample Delivered to On Board Lab

SpaceRef: Curiosity's First Three Bites Of Mars

Aviation Week: Mars Rover Team Believes Bright Particle Could Be Native

 

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Universe Today: Gorgeous Glenelg – ‘Promised Land’ Panorama on Mars

 

[N_Molson]

Awesome ! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

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NASA / NASA JPL:
Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil

October 22, 2012

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shook a scoopful of dusty sand inside its sample-handling mechanism on Sol 75 (Oct. 21, 2012) as the third scrubbing of interior surfaces of the mechanism. The rover team is instructing the rover to deliver a sieved sample from this scoopful -- the mission's fourth -- onto Curiosity's observation tray on Oct. 22 and plans to analyze another sample from the same scoopful with the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument this week.

Click on image for details​

The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its laser and spectrometers to examine what chemical elements are in a drift of Martian sand during the mission's 74th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 20, 2012).

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGN/CNRS​

Curiosity collected this fourth scoop of soil on Sol 74 (Oct. 20). A later scoop will become the first delivered to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. While continuing with scooping activities at the "Rocknest" site, the rover also has been examining surroundings with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mast Camera (Mastcam) instruments, and monitoring environmental conditions with the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instruments of its science payload.

Sol 75, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 8:58 a.m. Oct. 22, PDT (11:58 a.m., EDT).

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Science Daily: Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil

Discover Magazine - Bad Astronomy: Pew! Pew! Take *that*, Mars!