MSL scientific results Options

[marsbug]

A fourth scenario occurs to me. The methane doesn't exist.

Phil

...or the methane doesn't exist.

[Don1]

This whole Martian methane business seems like a modern day version of the controversy over Martian canals that took place 100 years ago. It is a question of people seeing what they hope to see at the limits of instrumental resolution.

[marsbug]

After all the effort and money invested in Mars exploration over the last fifteen years or so it is easy to see why people would want to find some possible evidence of extant life. I'm just hoping that a negative result on methane today won't hurt the will to explore Mars's deep past, and I think that should be my last word before this drifts any further from topic.

[Paolo]

several MSL papers in today's Science.
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

Curiosity even made it to the cover!

[Harder]

Paolo, in the last hour or so Curiosity also made it to the "Breaking News" level: 2% water in soil. See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24287207

[CosmicRocker]

It would be interesting to learn of the details regarding this measurement. Is the water being held by hygroscopic salts in the soil, or as water of crystallization in some mineral, or as something else?

[Gerald]

The abstract X-ray Diffraction Results from Mars Science Laboratory: Mineralogy of Rocknest at Gale Crater, Paolo pointed to, mentions hisingerite (Fe₂Si₂O₅ (OH)₄ · 2H₂O) as an option:

The soil also contains ... volatile-bearing phases, including possibly a substance resembling hisingerite

[marsophile]

... or as water of crystallization ...?

The paper seems to conclude that the volatiles are almost entirely contained in the amorphous component.

[serpens]

I think the consensus was that this was bound water within the samples amorphous component.

[t_d]

Is it possible that a small amount of this water could be set free by the pressure or the heat generated by the action of the drill on the rock or soil?
TD

[t_d]

Btw would someone point me the set of all the drill sample results. We must be at a bunch now, right? I've just been too busy to follow closely - sorry.

[Phil Stooke]

Remember the drill was not used at Rocknest, so it didn't release water.

Detailed results on drill samples are still to be published.

Phil

[t_d]

Thanks! I'm sure lots of folks are looking forward to the results as much as I!
I'd always wondered if one of the images of the repeated impact of the drill into
rock on the first group of attempts left a tiny sliver of water at the bottom of the
tiny crevasse.

[Astro0]

The short answer to that question would be 'no'.

[serpens]

Interesting that the ChemCam analyses did not reveal any significant exchange of water vapour between the regolith and the atmosphere. Significant is another of those unfortunate rubbery words but the finding reflects the Phoenix TECP outcome. This would seem to constrain the diurnal exchange hypothesis. Comparison of the delta D of the current atmosphere, the sample and of SNC meteorites could possibly provide an insight into the age of the sample material .