Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 2870, September 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2872 tasks.

“Curiosity successfully drilled into the rock target named “Mary Anning 3,” producing a beautiful new drill hole and associated drill tailings,” reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Over the next several days, controllers will command the rover to deliver the drilled sample powder into the different instruments onboard the rover for additional analyses.

Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 2870, September 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mineralogical setting

“The rover will also continue its investigation of nearby rock targets that have shown interesting chemical variability over relatively short distances,” Salvatore adds.

Chemical variability within rock targets has been previously identified in “Gale Crater” by Curiosity, Salvatore points out, and can indicate differing amounts of water or oxygen availability, for example, during the formation or subsequent modification of the geologic materials.

Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2870, September 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We’re hoping that the Mary Anning 3 sample and subsequent analyses will help us to understand the mineralogical setting of these observed variations,” Salvatore concludes.