By Suzanne Presto – NASA‘s Mars Science Laboratory mission is shifting gears. The Curiosity rover is going to take a break from drilling into Martian bedrock and analyzing rock samples to do what Mars rovers are made to do: drive across the terrain.
Martian Mission
Curiosity is exploring within a deep, 150-kilometer-wide depression called Gale Crater so that scientists can learn about the area’s environmental history. The rover soon will shift into distance-driving mode to make the 8-kilometer trek to the base of a Martian peak called Mount Sharp. Scientists picked this target because they expect the mountain’s layers to offer clues about the way the Martian environment evolved.
The journey to Mount Sharp is expected to take many months, and mission scientists note that the rover will investigate interesting features along the way.
Progress report
Members of the Mars Science Laboratory team based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California gave reporters an update about the rover’s activities.
Joy Crisp, the deputy project scientist, described the decision to stop sampling and start moving as “one of the classic struggles” the science team faces.
“The team has decided that it really is a good time now to turn around and start making progress to Mount Sharp,” she said.
The mission’s main objective – to see if ancient Mars had environmental conditions that could have supported micro-organisms – already has been accomplished. Earlier this year, scientists said a rock sample from an area known as Yellowknife Bay contained some key chemical ingredients needed for life, including oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Martian bedrock showed evidence of multiple periods of wet conditions.
The nuclear-powered Curiosity is investigating Martian geology, weather and radiation levels during its two-year, $2.5 billion mission.
curiosity also recently found a mineral formation that looks like a flower embedded or a fossil in a rock, and since there has been evidence of water and the chemical compounds which can hold life, it probably wont be long when we find out the truth
I'm just fascinated by space and other planets. Although Mars isn't one of them, I'm sure there's at least one planet which holds life. I just hope it will be discovered in my life span 🙁
Maria Campeanu
I only hope I'll be able to travel to the outer space in my lifetime
It's amazing to me how much we have accomplished since we started working on the rover. I hope it will be working for a long time from now on because we will definitely find useful information at one point or another
Yeah, we discovered that The Sphinx was just a sand dune. :)) No, in a serious tone, it is really amazing that this was a success.
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