Opportunity Mars rover deploys the RAT. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
False color mosaic of the rock target Chester Lake a rock, located on Cape York, on the edge of the Endeavour crater. It is a breccia in which various rock fragments have been cemented together in a finer-grained matrix, probably during formation of the Endeavour crater billions of years ago. NASA Opportunity Mars rover is about to make on-the-spot measurements of this rock which will determine whether it contains clay minerals formed in the presence of water. Credit: NASA
There is exciting news streaming in from Mars.
That’s the word as NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover appears to be on the verge of a new discovery – more evidence of a wet Mars.
The Mars rover Opportunity has been scouting about after reaching the rim of the huge Endeavour Crater – knocking at the door of geology different from any it has explored during its first seven-plus years on Mars.
“Opportunity now is in a brand new mission,” explains Raymond Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also a Mars Exploration Rover deputy principal investigator.
“In late August, we looked at a rock named Tisdale, with a composition unlike any we’ve seen before. It has an enormous amount of zinc, bromine, phosphorus, chlorine, and sulfur, all elements that are mobile in the presence of water,” Arvidson said in a press statement.
The Mars robot has moved on and is now in the thick of the hunt to find elusive clay minerals by traversing to other rock targets and making detailed measurements, including making chemical and mineralogical observations of natural, brushed, and ground surfaces.
The rock the Mars rover is now sitting over is called Chester Lake and will be the first target in which ground controllers plan to use a Rock Abrasion Tool, the RAT, Arvidson noted, to progressively expose deeper and deeper surfaces.
Arvidson advised: “Stay tuned, we have a new mission and expect to make yet more exciting discoveries about the red planet.”
By Leonard David