MSL scientific results Options

[DEChengst]

Full papers now up on the JPL site:

Analysis of Surface Materials by the Curiosity Mars Rover.
Soil Diversity and Hydration as Observed by ChemCam at Gale Crater, Mars.
X-Ray Diffraction Results from Mars Science Laboratory: Mineralogy of Rocknest at Gale Crater.
Volatile, Isotope, and Organic Analysis of Martian Fines with the Mars Curiosity Rover.
The Petrochemistry of Jake_M: A Martian Mugearite.
Curiosity at Gale Crater, Mars: Characterization and Analysis of the Rocknest Sand Shadow.

ADMIN: Links edited to include titles of papers.

[Don1]

AGU abstracts are now available online here. (Link edited and fixed. Thanks Phil!)
There's a lot there. For instance:

"Sedimentary rocks of the YBF [Yellowknife Bay Formation] preserve a remarkable diversity of diagenetic textural features. These features can be roughly subdivided into at least two phases of activity: (1) formation of early concretions, voids, and internally banded ridges, potentially associated with a set of redox reactions that may have produced gases of, as yet, unknown character, and (2) later precipitation of Ca-sulfate (anhydrite, bassanite, and perhaps gypsum) in veins and in early diagenetic voids that are cross-cut by veins."

"Title: Raised Ridges in the Sheepbed Member as Evidence for Early Subaqueous Diagenesis at Yellowknife Bay
Spatially restricted clusters of erosion-resistant, ridged fracture fills have been found throughout the fine-grained clay-rich Sheepbed member of the Yellowknife Bay Formation ... these are interpreted as early diagenetic synaeresis cracks, likely formed by gas expansion... the fracture-filling also occurred subaqueously, in the phreatic zone, and was likely a very early diagenetic process"


"TITLE: The Mineralogical and Chemical Case for Habitability at Yellowknife Bay, Gale crater, Mars
...The presence of Fe and S in both reduced and oxidized states represents chemical disequilibria that could have been utilized ...Saponitization of olivine (a process analogous to serpentinization) could have produced H2 in situ. Indeed, early diagenetic hollow nodules (“minibowls”) present in the Cumberland mudstone are interpreted by some as forming when gas bubbles accumulated in the unconsolidated mudstone... A rough estimate of the minimum duration of the lacustrine environment is provided by the minimum thickness of the Sheepbed member. Given 1.5 meters, and applying a mean sediment accumulation rate for lacustrine strata of 1 m/1000 yrs yields a duration of 1,500 years. If the aqueous environments represented by overlying strata are considered, such as Gillespie Lake and Shaler, then this duration increases."

And: "A potential analog for the Sheepbed smectite is ‘griffithite,’ a variety of trioctahedral smectite in altered basalt of the Topanga formation, Griffith Park, Los Angeles."

I love the irony of sending Curiosity all the way from Pasadena to Gale Crater, only to find the same rocks as are present a short drive away in Griffith Park.

[Phil Stooke]

Use this link - Don1's seems to be tangled up with his logon info so it rejects direct access.

http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2013/scientific-program-2/

Phil

[Explorer1]

RAD telecon starting soon:
http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/i...ml#.UqYDVOKp6Fh

[Greenish]

Well, I missed the telecon, but if this is the press release to go with it there was a lot more that just RAD!

NASA Rover Results Include First Age Measurement on Mars and Help for Human Exploration

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/recent has the 6 papers under today's date.

(EDIT: changed 1st link to point to JPL page instead of nasa.gov; EDIT2: 1st link fixed)

[Gerald]

The first link contains a trailing %22; it should be
NASA Rover Results Include First Age Measurement on Mars and Help for Human Exploration

[ngunn]

Thanks for those links. Rock dating by a robotic probe is a big landmark in solar system exploration. The better the robots get the less need there is for sample return.

[Tom Tamlyn]

This is exciting. I've noticed some stories in the last couple of years about rock dating instruments under development for future missions, e.g. here, and especially here.

But as the middle ages roll on, one starts to curb his enthusiasm about instruments in development for hypothetical future missions. It's an unexpected treat that currently roving hardware can do this.

TTT

[Gerald]

I've been hoping that the K-Ar method could work without been anticipated before landing. So this is a really exciting success. (Btw.: It has been discussed at UMSF years ago.)
Narrowing down locations of low cumulative radiation exposure could result in even more exciting results; can't wait for the first SAM analysis of the next drill tailings (at WP4).

The MSR question is certainly highly controverse (rule 1.2?).

[ngunn]

What amazes me is that the particles that constitute the mudstone are still so big that a negligible amout of argon has escaped from their sufaces, allowing a crystallisation date to be derived for the progenitor rock. I would have expected some of that argon to have got out somehow, with all the physical and chemical processes those grains have undergone. How small do particles have to be before we can't do this? Can we get a crystallisation age for the material that forms Martian dust?

[Gerald]

K-Ar dating:

When K-40 decays to Ar-40 (Argon), the atom typically remains trapped within the lattice because it is larger than the spaces between the other atoms in a mineral crystal.

Based on this, you can well go down to the nanoscale, unless the surface doesn't get too large in comparison to the volume.
Things get a little more complicated, whenever the crystal lattice is destroyed, but the argon can't escape, and part of it is trapped again in new crystals.

The main uncertainty in the recent measurements seems to not have been caused by the argon, but by the limited accuracy of the amount of potassium.

Single interstellar dustgrains have been analysed. I'm unaware of K-Ar dating of dust.

[Gerald]

Links to the six December 9 papers, abstracts and full text.
You can also get there via Emily's post, but it's more direct this way.

[Reed]

Passive ChemCam observations have come up a few times. It appears there is a recent paper on this
ChemCam passive reflectance spectroscopy of surface materials at the Curiosity landing site, Mars (paywall, but googling the title should find you a PDF on the chemcam site)

The ChemCam publications page has a bunch more recent papers and preprints.

[TheAnt]

Researcher claim MSL images show "Earth like soils" suggestive of more benign conditions on Mars in the ancient past.

Univ of Oregon media relations page.

[Eutectic]

Published evidence for more differentiated igneous rocks:

Date:
July 14, 2015
Source:
DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory
Summary:
The ChemCam laser instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover has turned its beam onto some unusually light-colored rocks on Mars, and the results are surprisingly similar to Earth's granitic continental crust rocks. This is the first discovery of a potential 'continental crust' on Mars.

DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory. "Curiosity rover finds evidence of Mars' primitive continental crust: ChemCam instrument shows ancient rock much like Earth's." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150714142051.htm (accessed July 15, 2015).