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#1000
by
mlindner
on 03 Jul, 2013 06:02
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Trying to figure out where the updates are it seems like Facebook and Twitter are getting the info while the main jpl page and youtube are dormant.
https://twitter.com/marscuriosity
https://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity
Curiosity has been visiting Point Lake and is now at Shaler.
The raw images site is going so slow it might be quicker to direct download from Mars 
Here's a few shots from Shaler I've picked out. Enjoy 
Cross bedded sandstone....
For us non-geologists, whats the significance of "cross bedded sandstone?"
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#1001
by
jebbo
on 03 Jul, 2013 11:35
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For us non-geologists, whats the significance of "cross bedded sandstone?"
The deposition mechanism: was it aeolian (wind) or fluvial (water)?
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#1002
by
Dalhousie
on 04 Jul, 2013 23:31
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Cross bedded sandstone....
For us non-geologists, whats the significance of "cross bedded sandstone?"
Jebbo is right, cross-bedding forms when sand is deposited in a specific velocity regime. From it we can infer things like flow velocity, grainsize, depositional environment, and transport direction. They are very important palaeoenvironmental indicators. With a bit more work we can determine whether they were deposited by wind or water, and by what sort of bedform (which type of bar or dune).
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#1003
by
Bubbinski
on 06 Jul, 2013 05:03
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#1004
by
Dalhousie
on 07 Jul, 2013 22:06
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At the rate taken since landing Curiosity will be at the foothills of Mt Sharp in about a decade...
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#1005
by
spectre9
on 07 Jul, 2013 22:48
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At the rate taken since landing Curiosity will be at the foothills of Mt Sharp in about a decade...
Not quite. Looking at the pics it does seem like they have a bit of a boring drive through a flat rocky area.
Perhaps it was worth investigating the interesting features near the landing site.
This drive seems to be progressing well. No thick sand. I suspect JPL don't want to release an official update until they've clocked some miles so they can't be accused of having gone nowhere in a whole year.
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#1006
by
Dalhousie
on 08 Jul, 2013 04:31
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At the rate taken since landing Curiosity will be at the foothills of Mt Sharp in about a decade...
Not quite. Looking at the pics it does seem like they have a bit of a boring drive through a flat rocky area.
Not much was expected on the road to Gelnelg (although anyone from Adelaide could have told them differently
). I am sure they will see lots of potentially interesting things cand have to cose between driving on, brief stop to do contact science and ChemCam work, or a more detailed site investigation.
Perhaps it was worth investigating the interesting features near the landing site.
I think so, although to date we only have had one paper (although lots of abstracts)
This drive seems to be progressing well. No thick sand. I suspect JPL don't want to release an official update until they've clocked some miles so they can't be accused of having gone nowhere in a whole year.
I don't think they have got very far as yet. One drive of just under 18 m on Sol 324.
http://curiosityrover.com/tracking/drivelog.htmlI don't think sand will be an issue until they get close to the foothills of Mt Sharp, then there is the barchan belt to negotiate. This will be quite interesting as satellite imagery indicates that these are near 10 m high and that their surfaces are actiively moving.
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#1007
by
notsorandom
on 08 Jul, 2013 13:02
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Getting to Mt. Sharp or not lets remember that MSL has already accomplished all of its mission goals. Everything else at this point is a bonus, and I am sure that there are many more interesting things that will be discovered before it reaches the mountain.
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#1008
by
JohnFornaro
on 08 Jul, 2013 13:25
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Getting to Mt. Sharp or not lets remember that MSL has already accomplished all of its mission goals. Everything else at this point is a bonus, and I am sure that there are many more interesting things that will be discovered before it reaches the mountain.
One of those goals was to search for "signs of possible life". I haven't heard an official announcement that this goal had been met.
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#1009
by
Jim
on 08 Jul, 2013 13:41
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Yes, the process of searching has been successful. That was the goal. The results of the search is a different matter
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#1010
by
pippin
on 08 Jul, 2013 14:09
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You can't credibly set a goal of actually finding something of which you don't know whether it's there.
The whole "signs of life on Mars" story (at least in general publications) is already on the brink of fudging up stories just because people WANT to hear that signs of life have been found (although all the evidence found so far strongly suggest there has been none because on earth it's so ubiquitous that you will immediately find it's signs wherever you look and that probably wouldn't change for hundreds of millions of years even if it completely died now).
Your goal can be whether life is or has been possible and to search whether or not there are signs for it and whatever you find is the result and if the result is conclusive (in whatever direction) and procedurally OK, then that's a success.
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#1011
by
JohnFornaro
on 08 Jul, 2013 14:57
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Yes, the process of searching has been successful. That was the goal. The results of the search is a different matter
Mission accomplished?
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#1012
by
ugordan
on 08 Jul, 2013 15:00
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One of those goals was to search for "signs of possible life".
I thought it was to search for signs of past habitability?
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#1013
by
hop
on 08 Jul, 2013 20:00
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I thought it was to search for signs of past habitability?
Indeed it is. From the mission fact sheet:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-laboratory.pdfThe overarching science goal of the mission is to assess whether the landing area has ever had or still has environmental conditions favorable to microbial life, both its habitability and its preservation.
(my bold)
Every time questions about life come up in the press conferences, the team go out of their way to emphasize that that the mission is about
habitability not past or present life detection.
They did announce that preliminary results from the John Klein mudstone showed it was a relatively habitable environment at some point in the past. Considering that they expected to have to drive many km to even get to that kind of environment, it's seems difficult to argue that they are behind on their goals.
Based on MER experience, we should expect the pace of drives to pick up significantly once they get into the swing of things.
Of course, it's a science driven mission, so there will undoubtedly be stops and detours along the way.
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#1014
by
spectre9
on 08 Jul, 2013 23:36
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#1015
by
JohnFornaro
on 09 Jul, 2013 01:40
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#1016
by
RigelFive
on 09 Jul, 2013 06:17
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An update!!! 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-215
Hmmmmph!
If it takes a nuclear powered rover ONE EARTH YEAR to reach its target by creeping along the surface of Mars... wouldst reason not provide for another rover sent from Earth to just intrinsically arrive at said target in less time? Perhaps next time, a multi rover mission would be a smidge cheaper, faster, harder, stronger, et cetera, et cetera, in order to reach said target?
Also, when the MSL rover actually arrives at Mount Sharp, will the habitability of Mars suddenly become apparent? So then like, all of the manned Mars missions will then land at Mount Sharp?
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#1017
by
spectre9
on 09 Jul, 2013 07:04
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It's all about the landing zone.
They didn't want to be flying the skycrane near the mountain.
This photo was uploaded a while back showing how far Curiosity has to travel.
I thought they were going through the black sand but it looks like they are charting their way around it.
The main science objective for this mission has already been met. They didn't have to sift through all the layers of Mt Sharp to find what they were looking for.
Now everything is a bonus. Perhaps they will now be able to ascertain at what times and for how long Mars was habitable.
The next Mars lander (Insight) will have a whole new set of science objectives. It's not a rover and it's designed to look farther underneath the surface than Curiosity can with it's short drill and laser.
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#1018
by
Dalhousie
on 09 Jul, 2013 11:25
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#1019
by
JohnFornaro
on 09 Jul, 2013 13:07
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Also, when the MSL rover actually arrives at Mount Sharp, will the habitability of Mars suddenly become apparent?
We now know that "the rover found evidence for an ancient wet environment that had conditions favorable for microbial life".
The mission has "already accomplished its main science objective". By this metric, the mission is already a complete success. This is the only metric that matters. You know that.
What we have now are the bonus science objectives, literally at no extra cost.
You should also know that general questions about the "why" of this mission, beyond the demonstrated current success, are not appreciated. Once the experts decide what they want to do next, you will be informed.
). I am sure they will see lots of potentially interesting things cand have to cose between driving on, brief stop to do contact science and ChemCam work, or a more detailed site investigation.