MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 |
MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 |
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#101
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![]() Administrator ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 ![]() |
Curiosity has put more than 400 meters on the odometer and tosol (sol 56) she bumped up to a sand drift that we now know (via Twitter) is named Rocknest and will be the site of the first sample grab. In last week's press briefing, John Grotzinger warned that we will be here for "what seems like a very long time," 2-3 weeks. They will have to run several samples through the SA-SPaH (Sample Acquisition, Processing and Handling subsystem, pronounced "Saw-spa") and in particular CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In situ Martian Rock Analysis, pronounced "chimera") in order to "clean" it of any remaining Earthly contamination with good Mars dirt before they deliver the first sample to SAM or Chemin. So this seems like a good place to start a new thread.
As usual, discuss stuff that happened through sol 56 in the previous thread. -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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#102
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![]() Dublin Correspondent ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Admin Posts: 1799 Joined: 28-March 05 From: Celbridge, Ireland Member No.: 220 ![]() |
Ngunn , assuming (relatively) rare atmospheric conditions that can move heavier grains and smaller grains together separated by long periods where only lighter grains can be moved it seems logical to me that the process would end up with dunes\ripples that have a much higher percentage of fine grain material internally with a much higher relative proportion of coarser material right at the surface layer. This is similar to the type of sorting process that leads to desert pavement here on Earth but on a different scale. On Mars the time-frames could be very long indeed and the difference in atmospheric density ( and lack of moisture ) would result in this operating on much smaller grain sizes, which is how this appears to me.
I'm not interested to know how this does operate here on Earth so I've now got a half dozen sand dune papers open for bedtime reading. I'll post anything interesting I find. |
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