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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ MSL _ Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL) near Curiosity?

Posted by: climber Sep 7 2016, 04:27 PM

More news regarding (58!) RSL "near" the rover:

http://www.nature.com/news/mars-contamination-fear-could-divert-curiosity-rover-1.20544

Posted by: fredk Sep 7 2016, 05:57 PM

Remember that in last year's paper, Dundas and McEwen were clear that the candidates near MSL didn't meet the criteria for RSL's. The most RSL-like events were about 50 km from MSL, to the east, and even those didn't meet all the criteria.

Still, the real news in the Nature article is that they've been targeting the candidates with RMI. I've been meaning to ask if anyone has checked to see if any recent RMI imagery matches the candidate locations from Dundas and McEwen. One sequence with some streaks that caught my eye included this frame:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/01361/soas/rdr/ccam/CR0_518299075PRC_F0542280CCAM03360L1.PNG
But comparing with this mastcam frame:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01367/mcam/1367ML0066790410601029E01_DXXX.jpg
(the RMI field is just left of centre) it looks clear that the location is not one of the candidates of Dundas and McEwen.

PS - maybe a dedicated RSL thread would make sense, considering that potential RSL observations and discussion will probably be ongoing?

Posted by: elakdawalla Sep 7 2016, 07:58 PM

QUOTE (fredk @ Sep 7 2016, 10:57 AM)

PS - maybe a dedicated RSL thread would make sense, considering that potential RSL observations and discussion will probably be ongoing?

Good call.

Posted by: fredk Dec 5 2016, 03:25 PM

QUOTE (PaulH51 @ Nov 30 2016, 04:04 AM)

The USGS mission report for 1534 mentions a ChemCam long distance RMI mosaic to investigate a linear feature observed from HiRISE. Not sure what linear feature they are referring to? Any ideas welcome

I'd guess that the "linear features" mentioned in this and the 1538 reports are the potential RSL's. I haven't been able to identify the RMI locations to see if they match any of the plotted RSL candidate locations...

Posted by: Gerald Dec 5 2016, 10:56 PM

QUOTE (fredk @ Sep 7 2016, 06:57 PM)

...
One sequence with some streaks that caught my eye included this frame:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/01361/soas/rdr/ccam/CR0_518299075PRC_F0542280CCAM03360L1.PNG ...

I wonder whether those are fundamentally different from the many small landslides we have seen already along Curiosity's path. Just imagine the effect of one or more small dry landslides at the top of a higher slope.
Of course lack of evidence for liquid water in the sense of science isn't the same as definitive evidence for the absence of liquid water in the sense of PP.