The Top of Vera Rubin Ridge Part 2, Site 67-73, sol 1944-2297, 24 Jan 2018-22 Jan 2019 Options

[PaulH51]

Sol 2112: the first images have arrived after the sample acquisition attempt at Voyageurs. The subdued lighting makes it hard to call either way, I'll have to await a mastcam frame to call it properly....


EDIT: 13 HazCam subframe data products are now down. I can't make an animation, but looking at all 13 frames I'd say that they were not fully successful on this attempt. It appears that they may have got the drill bit into the surface a very short amount, but probably not enough to have got a sample in the sleeve. There was plenty of sand movement, and what looks like several press attempts before they pulled the drill away. There may be more subframe images in the pipeline that tells another story, but from what I have seen they'll need another go, maybe with more hammer?

EDIT 2 : The Sol 2113 Mission Update, confirms the hole was not deep enough to obtain a sample: https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/news/astrogeo...-hard-as-a-rock

[PaulH51]

Sol 2113 ChemCam RMI of Voyageurs 'mini hole'

EDIT and the R-MastCam (mini hole) and the before image (DRT). We can see damage on the rock, probably caused by the hammer action. That's a tough rock!

[Phil Stooke]

The drill hole in context with the DRT brush areas.

Phil

[jvandriel]

The Sol 2112 Drilling Animation.

Jan van Driel

[serpens]

There seems to have been some significant vibration there. Were they trying percussion?

[PaulH51]

There seems to have been some significant vibration there. Were they trying percussion?

Looks like it, Emily's last blog post discusses the return to using percussion with FED at Duluth, The animation from Jan suggests that they tried it here as well. Link to Emily's last blog http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakda...-2027-2092.html

[PaulH51]

Before & After Micro Images of a LIBS raster during sol 2114 at the shallow drill hole at Voyageurs.

Note the drill cuttings (tailings) were pushed away by the laser zaps. Is it probably just my wishful thinking, but the cuttings appear to bunched together and aligned by size at the rim of the hole. I was reminded of iron filings on a sheet of paper held above the pole of a magnet. Could this be an indication that the hematite-rich minerals at this hot spot are slightly magnetic?

Note also that the grain size appears to be larger than the previous powdered rock cuttings, maybe a result of the hardness of this rock.

In the post-LIBS image we can also see what appear to be a series of lines from the hole center to the rim, probably a result of the percussive action of the drill?

The sample acquisition may have failed, but it looks like they could have learned much from this campaign.

[Gerald]

Is it probably just my wishful thinking, but the cuttings appear to bunched together and aligned by size at the rim of the hole. I was reminded of iron filings on a sheet of paper held above the pole of a magnet. Could this be an indication that the hematite-rich minerals at this hot spot are slightly magnetic?

If there would be a significant overall magnetic field, and the grains would consist partially of magnetite, the particles would probably line up parallel to magnetic field lines. I don't perceive such an effect here. But slightly magnetic particles might clot together in a more random fashion.
Here, I'm inclined to presume, that the pattern the tailings are forming after the LIBS shots are just a result of the wind pressure decreasing with distance from the LIBS hits, maybe combined with the slope of the abraded area, and surface roughness, but without obvious evidence of magentism being involved.

Compositionally, this would suggest absence of magnetite that might have been magnetized by friction. But the color, of course, suggests presence of hematite.
And the hardness of the rock could explain why there is a ridge.
It would be interesting to know, whether the hematite itself is the cause of the hardness, or if it just plays the role of a pigment, and the hardness is caused by another mineral, like e.g. quartz. But APXS should be able to provide constraints, even if the drill powder isn't accessible for CheMin.

[PaulH51]

If there would be a significant overall magnetic field, and the grains would consist partially of magnetite, the particles would probably line up parallel to magnetic field lines. I don't perceive such an effect here. But slightly magnetic particles might clot together in a more random fashion.
Here, I'm inclined to presume, that the pattern the tailings are forming after the LIBS shots are just a result of the wind pressure decreasing with distance from the LIBS hits, maybe combined with the slope of the abraded area, and surface roughness, but without obvious evidence of magentism being involved.

Compositionally, this would suggest absence of magnetite that might have been magnetized by friction. But the color, of course, suggests presence of hematite.
And the hardness of the rock could explain why there is a ridge.
It would be interesting to know, whether the hematite itself is the cause of the hardness, or if it just plays the role of a pigment, and the hardness is caused by another mineral, like e.g. quartz. But APXS should be able to provide constraints, even if the drill powder isn't accessible for CheMin.

Thank you Gerald, I appreciate your insight once again

[Guest_Actionman_*]

If the static electro force is great enough to generate a magnetic field the color of the drill area would be that of atmospheric dust proportionally.

[serpens]

The settling of particles around the rim appears to result from the interaction between forces from the laser pulses and the drill bowl geometry. Where the laser shots were higher up the side of the bowl the particles in the vicinity settled away from the rim. With the exception of the probable magnesium sulfate fragments the particles seem to be fine and clumped. The clumping could be electrostatic, plasma generation at the target would generate an electromagnetic pulse or potentially even Van der Waals forces.

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 2115.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 2116.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the view on Sol 2119.

Jan van Driel

[charborob]

The sol 2119 post-drive Lmastcam view:


And a look at the nearby rocks: