By 
January 6th, 2016
This view of the downwind face of “Namib Dune” on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. The site is part of the dark-sand “Bagnold Dunes” field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit indicate that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Working hard in Sol 1215 mode, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is partway through the first up-close study ever conducted of extraterrestrial sand dunes.
The rover is providing dramatic views of a dune’s steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures than the wavy ripples visible on the dune’s windward slope.
This view from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover shows the downwind side of “Namib Dune,” which stands about 13 feet (4 meters) high. The site is part of Bagnold Dunes, a band of dark sand dunes along the northwestern flank of Mars’ Mount Sharp.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The downwind side of an active sand dune has a steep slope called a slip face.
New location
“After wrapping up our holiday investigation on the lee side of Namib Dune, it’s time to move to a new location along the dune to sample the chemistry and mineralogy of the sand,” reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Recent rover tasks included checking out the wheels, followed by a long drive.
Taking a January 5 look at wheel damage using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The new site will allow easier access for sampling part of the active dune, Edgar adds.
The plan calls for the robot to perform a number of atmospheric monitoring activities, including several Navcam movies, and a passive sky observation.
According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Curiosity’s dune-investigation campaign is “designed to increase understanding about how wind moves and sorts grains of sand, in an environment with less gravity and much less atmosphere than well-studied dune fields on Earth.”
Active dunes
The Bagnold Dunes that the Mars machinery is monitoring are active.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1215, January 6, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Sequential images taken from orbit over the course of multiple years show that some of these dunes are migrating by as much as a yard, or meter, per Earth year,” according to JPL.
No sand slide has yet been caught by Curiosity, “but the rover’s images of the Namib Dune slip face show where such slides have occurred recently.”
The dunes being surveyed are likely most active in Mars’ southern summer, rather than in the current late-fall season.
Posted in Space News
