NASA Mars Rover's First Soil Analysis Yields Surprises

JPL.NASA.gov ^ | 1/20/04 | JPL/NASA

[NormsRevenge]

The first use of the tools on the arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit reveals puzzles about the soil it examined and raises anticipation about what the tool will find during its studies of a martian rock.

Today and overnight tonight, Spirit is using its microscope and two up-close spectrometers on a football-sized rock called Adirondack, said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"We're really happy with the way the spacecraft continues to work for us," Trosper said. The large amount of data -- nearly 100 megabits -- transmitted from Spirit in a single relay session through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft today "is like getting an upgrade to our Internet connection."

Scientists today reported initial impressions from using Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, Moessbauer spectrometer and microscopic imager on a patch of soil that was directly in front of the rover after Spirit drove off its lander Jan. 15.

"We're starting to put together a picture of what the soil at this particular place in Gusev Crater is like. There are some puzzles and there are surprises," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the suite of instruments on Spirit and on Spirit's twin, Opportunity.

One unexpected finding was the Moessbauer spectrometer's detection of a mineral called olivine, which does not survive weathering well. This spectrometer identifies different types of iron-containing minerals; scientists believe many of the minerals on Mars contain iron. "This soil contains a mixture of minerals, and each mineral has its own distinctive Moessbauer pattern, like a fingerprint," said Dr. Goestar Klingelhoefer of Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, lead scientist for this instrument.

The lack of weathering suggested by the presence of olivine might be evidence that the soil particles are finely ground volcanic material, Squyres said. Another possible explanation is that the soil layer where the measurements were taken is extremely thin, and the olivine is actually in a rock under the soil.

Scientists were also surprised by how little the soil was disturbed when Spirit's robotic arm pressed the Moessbauer spectrometer's contact plate directly onto the patch being examined. Microscopic images from before and after that pressing showed almost no change. "I thought it would scrunch down the soil particles," Squyres said. "Nothing collapsed. What is holding these grains together?"

Information from another instrument on the arm, an alpha particle X- ray spectrometer, may point to an answer. This instrument "measures X-ray radiation emitted by Mars samples, and from this data we can derive the elemental composition of martian soils and rocks," said Dr. Johannes Brueckner, rover science team member from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. The instrument found the most prevalent elements in the soil patch were silicon and iron. It also found significant levels of chlorine and sulfur, characteristic of soils at previous martian landing sites but unlike soil composition on Earth.

Squyres said, "There may be sulfates and chlorides binding the little particles together." Those types of salts could be left behind by evaporating water, or could come from volcanic eruptions, he said. The soil may not have even originated anywhere near Spirit's landing site, because Mars has dust storms that redistribute fine particles around the planet. The next target for use of the rover's full set of instruments is a rock, which is more likely to have originated nearby.

Spirit landed in the Connecticut-sized Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time). In coming weeks and months, according to plans, it will examine rocks and soil for clues about whether the past environment there was ever watery and possibly suitable to sustaining life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; 9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet.

[NormsRevenge]

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at http://athena.cornell.edu .

[NormsRevenge]

Mysterious Lava Mineral on Mars
Jan. 20, 2004

This graph or spectrum captured by the Moessbauer spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the presence of three different iron-bearing minerals in the soil at the rover's landing site. One of these minerals has been identified as olivine, a shiny green rock commonly found in lava on Earth. The other two have yet to be pinned down. Scientists were puzzled by the discovery of olivine because it implies the soil consists at least partially of ground up rocks that have not been weathered or chemically altered. The black line in this graph represents the original data; the three colored regions denote individual minerals and add up to equal the black line.

The Moessbauer spectrometer uses two pieces of radioactive cobalt-57, each about the size of pencil erasers, to determine with a high degree of accuracy the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals in martian rocks and soil. It is located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or "arm."

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Mainz

[NormsRevenge]

A Rainbow of Martian Elements
Jan. 20, 2004

This graph or spectrum taken by the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the variety of elements present in the soil at the rover's landing site. In agreement with past missions to Mars, iron and silicon make up the majority of the martian soil. Sulfur and chlorine were also observed as expected. Trace elements detected for the first time include zinc and nickel. These latter observations demonstrate the power of the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to pick up the signatures of elements too faint to be seen before. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer uses alpha particles and X-rays to measure the presence and abundance of all major rock-forming elements except hydrogen.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry

[NormsRevenge]

Super Rover's X-Ray Vision
Jan. 20, 2004

Located on the arm of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer uses alpha particles and X-rays to determine the chemical make up of martian rocks and soils. This type of information helps scientists understand how the planet's crust was weathered and formed. Mars Exploration Rover team members used this palm-sized instrument on a small patch of martian soil just after Spirit rolled off the Columbia Memorial Station. They found that although the soil was very similar to what they had seen previously on Mars, the instrument's improved sensitivity allowed them to see new elements and subtle differences not detected before.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry

[Hunble]

Ok, help me out here.....

Why is this not expected?

Scientists were puzzled by the discovery of olivine because it implies the soil consists at least partially of ground up rocks that have not been weathered or chemically altered.

Uh, could this have something to do with being inside of and also rather close to a small crater?

[jwalburg]

Rovers

[ambrose]

What are these circled images?

(Here's the original uncircled image: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/016/2N127786600EFF0327P1932L0M1.JPG)

[NormsRevenge]

jw - Thanks!

Great 'toon! :-]

[sigSEGV]

CCD pixel flipping. You can get the same thing with your digital camera at home. With the raw image, you'd be able to see that they align perfectly with the pixel grid of the camera. Unfortunately, the JPEG compression makes it harder to see.

[sigSEGV]

Note that the specks are in the same exact spot of the CCD in another shot of a different area.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/016/2N127786698EFF0327P1932L0M1.JPG

[ambrose]

Not little Green Men ?? :(

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks. an interesting effect.

[ambrose]

Hey... am I the only one who would sooooooooooooooo love to be there, right now? (with an oxygen mask, of course).

[NormsRevenge]

I hear ya. I'm a bit of a rockhound myself. ;-)

[ambrose]

I wish they'd land a rover at one of the mountain ranges, and another one at the polar areas.

[NormsRevenge]

Yup. We need to go where the water is, maybe.. and where the hill folks live. ;-)

[ambrose]

And let's quit f$*@($g around and get on with it!

[AppauledAtAppeasementConservat]

"Hey... am I the only one who would sooooooooooooooo love to be there, right now? (with an oxygen mask, of course)."

Add a matching pressurized suite to that oxygen mask and I'd wanna join ya! Seriously though, wouldn't it be awesome to reach down and pick up those rocks and look at them up close.

[NormsRevenge]

Yup! I agree. Rovers are cheap. Let's Do It!

FYI --- Report: NASA Lags on Shuttle Return-To-Flight Plans

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFLMBO***!!!!

What a great Toon!!!