Main content
Course: NASA > Unit 3
Lesson 4: Curiosity rover: discoveries- Curiosity has landed
- Curiosity descent
- Systems check
- Curiosity's first drive
- Navigation update
- Observations
- Discovery: Streambed
- First CheMin results
- Preparation for holidays
- Calcium-rich deposits found
- Results of first drilling
- Mars' bygone atmosphere
- 'Spring Break' over: commanding resumes
- Rover ready to switch gears
- Trek to Mt. Sharp begins
- Dating younger rocks
- Curiosity completes its first martian year
- A softer trek to mount sharp
- A taste of mount sharp
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Calcium-rich deposits found
First candidate drill site found. Created by NASA.
Want to join the conversation?
- How much electricity does the battery store?(4 votes)
- It doesn't store that much, just enough to last a couple of sols, because it can charge the battery with the solar panels. Maybe enough for 2-3 sols.(1 vote)
- Will NASA ever send rovers to other planets besides Mars?(4 votes)
- Certainly. There have been some probes that survived on other planets. The user had a probe survive on the surface of Venus long enough to transmit photos. The EU had a floating lander on the surface of titan, one of saturnss moons briefly as well(1 vote)
- what will happen if the rover stop working will they send another rover check things out(1 vote)
- They might send one or completely start a new mission(1 vote)
- what will happen if the rover break down will they try to bring it back and fix it and see what was the problem.(1 vote)
- They would just leave it on mars because it would cost too much money and materials too send a spacecraft to send it back.(1 vote)
- what is the yellowknife bay area?(1 vote)
- how fast is the rover drill? O_O 12(1 vote)
- why don't send more rovers?(0 votes)
- They cost a lot of money. What they are trying to do is to "kill two birds with one stone". They are packing Curiosity with a lot of instruments instead of sending a lot of rovers with a specific purpose. That would cost a lot more than just sending one rover equipped to do everything.(5 votes)
Video transcript
Hello, I am Justin Maki and I am the engineering
camera lead for the Mars Science Laboratory mission and a member of the MSL Science Camera
Team and this is your Curiosity Rover Report. The rover has been investigating the YellowKnife
bay area as part of an effort to pick the exact location of our first drill activity
on Mars. The images being returned by Curiosity show
a diverse collection of interesting features, including sedimentary rocks, pebbles, cracks,
nodules, and veins. The vein features are seen as a bright white
material, and we see them just about everywhere we look in Yellowknife bay. The Chemcam instrument has found that these
veins contain elevated levels of calcium sulfate, likely in the form of bassanite or gypsum. Gypsum veins are also seen here on Earth and
associated with water percolating through cracks and fractured rocks. The exciting news from all of this analysis
is the candidate site where Curiosity will conduct its first drilling activity. This site is located only a few meters away
from the rover’s current location, and lies in a flat area, suitable for drilling. The team hopes to drill directly into one
of the veins and place the powder into the SAM and ChemMin analytical instruments. These instruments will give us detailed information
about the composition of the material. We’ll be driving over there in the next
few days. On our way over to the drill site, we’re
planning on using the rover’s wheels to crush some of these nearby veins and examine
the freshly broken material. This image from Sol 135 shows an example of
how the rover can break open soft rocks with its wheels, revealing the freshly exposed
material. I’m Justin Maki, and this has been your
Curiosity Rover Report. Check back for more reports.