Recent material on mission studies for Uranus and Neptune.

Fact chart on the Oceanus mission:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/aug2...sters/Elder.pdf

More comprehensive presentation on the status of mission studies done at JPL:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/aug2.../Hofstadter.pdf


I just hope to see one of these missions in my lifetime. These are amazing worlds in the own right.

I suspect, and would encourage NASA to propose and build instruments for this mission, like they do for ESA missions. I am wondering, if we assume little to no redesign of Dragon 2 for Red Dragon, what kind of instruments could it take to Mars. One idea that I have heard before is a deep, relatively speaking, drill. The drill would be housed in the lander, and drill through the floor and heat shield before drilling into Mars. A deep drill on mars would be have amazing scientific return, if landed in the right area. I know that the Planetary Society was helping to enable that technology. What other instrument ideas would make sense?

That is amazing! I can not imagine how long that took to make.

Beautiful contact! It does not look like an unconformity. It is not obvious to me that any erosion took place between the deposition of the different rock units. However, since the lower unit has substantial veining, and the upper unit does not, there would appear to be a significant change in deposition environment and probably a significant age difference.

I love speculating geology from a 100 million kilometers away.

Great analysis Gerald. I thought these deposits were older than the alluvial fan. I guess it is possible and probably that there were multiple episodes of fan deposition, but given the distinct mineralogy difference, I would suspects a different deposition mechanism.

I love the cross-bedding in these rocks. This is one place on Mars that looks very similar to sedimentary rocks on Earth.

It would appear that the neck is an "erosional" feature (not sure if erosion is the right word), and maybe not the contact boundary between 2 separate bodies. At some point in the future, the neck will sublime away and the comet will split in two.

Wow! Those look like mud cracks.

Villa de la Mina looks like an interesting place to visit. Can Curiosity make 117 kilometers?

Seriously, I guess 360citites is not geared to places off planet.

Conglomerates are not great at preserving organics, so I bet they are not as interested in these. Plus this rock was loose and not part of an outcrop. I do hope they will stop at an outcrop of this rock at some time, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't.

I guess that I am not alone. So many rocks. The next rover needs a rock hammer.

That's pretty ugly.

They certainly are putting the petal to the metal. It must be frustrating for the geologists on the science team to see all these beautiful land forms passing by, without taking the time to sample them. I know if would have stopped at each outcrop to chip a small sample and do a quick identification before moving on. But that's the difference between a robotic and organic geologist. It probably would have taken a human explorer a week to do what Curiosity has done in a year. Hey NASA, I'm volunteering. No luck.

Gerald, that makes sense. In looking at some of the HIRISE images of the area, the boulders appears to be concentrated on these nobs and small rises. Could this be because the boulders are creating sand traps where wind-blown sediment is collecting?

Visually, this is a particularly fascinating. 4 boulders nearly equally spaced around a little hill. I wonder if it could have been 1 large boulder that broke apart into the 4 large pieces that are slowly separating and migrating down slope.

I am so glad that they are putting a cache on this rover, although the chances of NASA funding a sample return mission are extremely low. Unless, of course, this rover actually finds a rock unit with high suggestive evidence of past or present life.

I wasn't going to go that far and speculate what gases they could be, if these are truly gas escape structures. The link you provided to the article about the similar structures in Colorado refers to the gas probably being methane. However, I assume any type trapped gas could cause these structures. It is certainly suggestive that the color of the rock they just drilled into indicates a reducing environment. The same type of environment that methane is found on Earth today.

Wow, xflare, that is a great find. The resemblance is amazing.

Are the minerals in the veins fluorescing, or are they just reflecting the UV light? If I am reading the MAHLI specs correct, the UV LED emits at 365nm, and the CCD's sensitivity drops off at 380nm. So we are probably seeing some fluorescence. From the following website, gypsum fluoresces a yellowish white at 365nm. The color in the MAHLI image is more bluish white. Undoubtedly, there are some other minerals at play, but the evidence for gypsum in the veins is adding up.

Database of Luminescent Minerals

- Andrew

From my understanding of geochemistry, calcium sulfate (gypsum), does not need acidic water to form. It will precipitate out of solution when enough of the water evaporates. However, gypsum in veins could also form through hydrothermal processes, which are often acidic due to the leaching of minerals from the source rock, but these waters do not represent the surface water conditions.

I wonder if they will sample the rock around the vein to see if the solution that created the vein leached minerals out of the bedrock. That would be a good indication that the vein formed through hydrothermal processes.

- Andrew

I would have to agree with John. It looks like a lot of mineral veins I have seen in open-pit mines.

Andrew

With what is going on with Curiousity, I sometimes forget the amazing landscape that Opportunity is roving in.

Go Opportunity!!

You are correct that a lot of limestones on Earth are fossiliferous, but limestones can form naturally outside of biology as well. As you really need is liquid water, the right PH and lots of carbon dioxide. Mars has lots of CO2, but did it have liquid water at the right acidity?

Nice looking sandstone. Do you notice the clear grains? Looks like they might be quartz. Have quartz crystals been found on Mars yet?

Absolutely beautiful! This has to be the most geologically diverse landscape we've seen on Mars yet. I can imagine how excited the project scientist are right now.