Mars rock similar to Earth rock

 

The ‘Jake’ rock showing the red spots where Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study the rock’s composition.

Anything about rocks always arouses my curiosity, having studied Mining engineering.

There was nothing more intriguing, therefore, knowing that a rock found and analyzed by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity resembled rocks found on our planet.

“This rock is a close match in chemical composition to an unusual but well-known type of igneous rock found in many volcanic provinces on Earth,” Curiosity co-investigator Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said in a statement.

Unusual in the sense that when Curiosity’s arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer —known as APXS laser was used to zap and the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, to analyze the pulverized material from the football-sized rock, scientists found the rock low in magnesium and iron – elements common in igneous rocks, but high in elements consistent with the mineral feldspar.

Apparently, previous Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, found rocks that were high in magnesium and iron.

The sampled rock was called ‘Jake’, after a Jet Propulsion Laboratory rover engineer, Jake Matijevic, who died shortly after Curiosity’s landing on the Red Planet on August 6, 2012.

Scientists said the make-up of the rock is similar to one found on oceanic islands like Hawaii and St. Helena, as well as in continental rift zones like the Rio Grande, which extends from Colorado to Chihuahua, Mexico.

(Igneous rocks are called fire rocks and are formed either underground or above ground. Underground, they are formed when the melted rock, called magma, deep within the earth becomes trapped in small pockets. As these pockets of magma cool slowly underground, the magma becomes igneous rocks.

Igneous rocks are also formed when volcanoes erupt, causing the magma to rise above the earth’s surface. When magma appears above the earth, it is called lava. Igneous rocks are formed as the lava cools above ground.

Igneous rocks usually contain ferro-magnesium minerals (amphiboles, pyroxenes, micas,, or olivine) and feldspar- like minerals. Many contain quartz.)

 

NASA Mars rover’s travel to the red planet

In case you haven’t seen it yet, I am sharing with you a video of the conceptualization of the twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity’s journey to and landing on the red planet using a rolling method with land bags. Spirit was launched on June 10, 2003 and made its planetary landing on January 4, 2004. Opportunity was launched on July 7, 2003 and landed January 25, 2004. This was aptly described then as the six minutes of terror.

Another video is that of the latest Mars rover Curiosity which was launched on November 26, 2011 and landed on August 6, 2012, where the rover went through an extremely complicated sequence of maneuvers to land, as can be seen. Curiosity’s landing was planned differently because of the rover’s sheer size and weight compared to the earlier rovers.

These ambitious Mars missions are amazing feat of science realized by the brilliance of those Engineers at NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory.

‘Curiosity’ rover lands on Mars

Artist’s concept of Curiosity rover touch down on Mars

This is a sequel to a blog I wrote on July17, 2012 titled ‘NASA’s latest Mars rover to continue work on Red Planet.’

Finally, as planned, on time, on target and as flawless as it can be, the Curiosity rover got deposited on the Martian surface after a parachute slowed it down about 11 kilometers above the surface and then at 20 meters above the ground a brand new landing procedure using a sky crane took over to further slowdown by firing eight retro rockets while lowering the rover to the surface on the end of three cables. When the rover hit the ground, the cables were cut loose, and the sky crane blasted itself away from the landing site.

As described by NASA, the final phase of the Mars Science Laboratory’s journey from Earth to Mars relied on technologies that had never been tried before in outer space — which is why it was called the “seven minutes of terror.”

Seven minutes before landing, Mars Science Laboratory threw off its cruise stage and began its plunge through the planet’s atmosphere at a speed of 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second). It jettisoned two solid-tungsten weights, shifting the spacecraft’s balance to become more like a wing. Small thrusters fired to put the craft through a series of “S” turns to adjust the trajectory.

The heat shield weathered temperatures ranging up to 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit (2,100 degrees Celsius). At an altitude of about 7 miles (11 kilometers), the spacecraft deployed its parachute, even while it was traveling at supersonic speeds.

According to Adam Steltzner, the lead engineer for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission, NASA went with the seemingly crazy system because the 1-ton Curiosity is the heaviest payload ever delivered to the Martian surface. That weight is too heavy for the airbag-cushioned system that was used for previous Mars rovers, and too unstable to put on a lander with legs.

The nuclear-powered Curiosity is the biggest and most capable robotic laboratory ever sent to another celestial body. Its 10 scientific instruments, among them a robotic arm with a power drill, a laser that can zap distant rocks, a chemistry lab to sniff for the chemical building blocks of life and a detector to measure dangerous radiation on the surface.

It also tracked radiation levels during the journey to help NASA better understand the risks astronauts could face on a future manned trip.

After a while of monitoring its ‘health’, the six-wheeled rover is expected to take its first short drive and start flexing its robotic arm for more studies.

NASA’s latest Mars rover to continue work on Red Planet

 

Artist’s concept of Curiosity Mars rover

Like Mars rovers Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, before it, that landed on Mars in January 2004, NASA’s next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, is on course for landing on Mars next month, or to be more specific on August 6.

Curiosity, which NASA scientists have described as a $2.5 billion dream machine, was launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Nov. 26, 2011 aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket and is now nearing the end of its 354-million-mile (570 million-kilometer) trek through space.

The rover, which has six wheels and weighs nearly a ton (900 kilograms), is expected to land in  Mars’ Gale Crater near Mount Sharp and will be on a two-year mission to find out whether microbial life once existed on the Red Planet.

The exact landing spot, however, according to scientists, will depend on the craft’s final steering maneuvers as it races toward Mars.

Landing successfully is quite a challenge, and Curiosity’s mission is pioneering a new landing method to enable use of a heavier rover. Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover.

The vessel transporting Curiosity will glide through the planet’s upper atmosphere, instead of “dropping like a rock” onto Martian soil, in order to ensure as secure and precise a landing as possible.

NASA mission directors say that unlike previous probes, Curiosity is too heavy to sustain an impact cushioned by airbags.

Instead, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California say they have opted for a “sky crane” method — a “backpack with retro-rockets” controlling speed will gently deposit Curiosity on Mars.

In the seven minutes prior to landing, the spacecraft carrying the rover will decelerate from about 13,200 miles per hour to just 1.7 miles per hour, slowed by a giant parachute.

“Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire mission,” said the JPL’s Mars Science Laboratory project manager, Pete Theisinger.

According to NASA, Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped communicating in 2010.