Mars rover landing site overview (kinda technical but cool)

[PomfretPlunge]

Here's a really cool review article which gives an overview, context, and some of the geochemical remote sensing data for the Curiosity rover landing site in Gale Crater on Mars. This provides some good context for the amazing pictures & data the rover is sending back.


There are some beautiful color pictures at the end of the review. If you look into the pictures, you can see the riverbeds and sand dunes up on Mars. Cool beans! Kids will love 'em. I also think the text is relatively clear & well-written for a technical thingie


http://wray.eas.gatech.edu/Wray2012_GaleReview-acceptedIJA.pdf


In terms of age, they think Mars had probably 3 main geologic periods called Noachian (great floods), Hesperian (drying out, with occasional catastrophic floods surging up from aquifers), and Amazonian (cold desert like today). They think Gale Crater, where Curiosity is exploring, is probably right about at the Noachian-Hesperian boundary, which was about 3.5 billion years ago.


The crater is full of clear layers of rock. Some of the layers are showing obvious clay chemistry when observed from orbit. The rover has also already found at least one streambed (full of rounded gravel – probably unmistakable).


Will be fascinating to see what we learn as the rover radios more info back…

Peace all
Plunge

 

[bvibert]

Cool, thanks!

 

[PomfretPlunge]

Here are some more pixx. Wild stuff up there. Looks like the Grand Canyon, only...different...

Nice compilation of telephoto views of the mountain and the layers. Nice cross-sections, and really striking layering:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-...exactly-like-something-from-earth-2012-8?op=1


Nice popular description of the layer & sulfate stack at Gale Crater:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblo...explores-snake-river-area-of-gale-crater.html

 

[Cannon Gray]

There are many rocket manufacturer companies in the world, but none of them actually launch rovers to Mars or Moon - this only for NASA these days. But as for me, there is not much benefit from rovers - for the age of rovers, they haven't even approximately been to finding anything useful for colonization or possible life beyond the Earth.