{"id":19336,"date":"2016-06-24T20:40:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T12:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-considers-turning-curiosity-rover-into-a-scout-for-water-on-mars-mountain\/"},"modified":"2016-06-24T20:40:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T12:40:27","slug":"nasa-considers-turning-curiosity-rover-into-a-scout-for-water-on-mars-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-considers-turning-curiosity-rover-into-a-scout-for-water-on-mars-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA considers turning Curiosity rover into a scout for water on Mars mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_257189\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-257189\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-257189 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160624-mars-630x521.jpg\" alt=\"Curiosity rover selfie on Mars\" width=\"630\" height=\"521\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160624-mars-630x521.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160624-mars-768x636.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160624-mars.jpg 922w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-257189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This selfie of NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at a drilled sample site called \u201cOkoruso,\u201d on the Naukluft Plateau of lower Mount Sharp. The scene combines several images taken with the rover\u2019s Mars Hand Lens Imager on May 11.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA says one of the Curiosity rover\u2019s future tasks&nbsp;could be to check out sites on Mars that may harbor trickles of salty water.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been nearly four years since Curiosity was dropped into Gale Crater&nbsp;by a rocket-powered crane. Since that touchdown, the six-wheeled, 1-ton robot has found ample evidence that water once flowed through the territory it has explored.<\/p>\n<p>Curiosity is now making its way up the side of Mount Sharp (a.k.a. Aeolis Mons), a 3-mile-high mountain in the middle of Gale Crater \u2013 and it\u2019s making further&nbsp;discoveries along the way.<\/p>\n<p>For example, scientists say&nbsp;they\u2019ve identified an unusual mineral in a ground-up sample of rock that Curiosity analyzed. The mineral, known as tridymite, is typically associated with an explosive process known as silicic volcanism. That process has been seen at work on Earth in volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens, but it\u2019s not thought to occur&nbsp;on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe discovery of tridymite was completely unexpected,\u201d NASA planetary scientist Richard Morris, the lead author of a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a news release. Morris and his colleagues are now trying to figure out whether a different kind of low-temperature process could create tridymite.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, other scientists are tracking&nbsp;seasonal changes in dark streaks on Martian slopes that are known as recurring slope lineae, or RSLs.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Water Flowing on Mars Today on This Week @NASA \u2013 October 2, 2015\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H4kmBX0J3K8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>RSLs may be trickles&nbsp;of salty water that spread out during Mars\u2019 spring thaw, and then shrink away. Or they could be a phenomenon that\u2019s unrelated to water, such as dry avalanches.<\/p>\n<p>NASA says two RSL candidates may be within Curiosity\u2019s reach. The rover could use one of its ChemCam scientific instruments, known as the&nbsp;Remote Micro-Imager, to make spectral observations of&nbsp;those RSLs over time. Such observations could determine whether the streaks are actually caused by water, or whether something else is going on.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, the dark streaks are considered \u201cspecial regions\u201d&nbsp;\u2013 places where extra precautions have to be taken to prevent contamination. That could limit how close Curiosity will be allowed to get.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKilometers away&nbsp;\u2013 it\u2019s unlikely that it would be an issue,\u201d Catharine Conley, NASA\u2019s planetary protection officer, said in a news release issued today. \u201cIn terms of coming much closer, we need to understand well in advance the potential for Earth organisms to come off the rover, and that will tell us how far away the rover should stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA says managers are currently considering a mission extension for Curiosity, and the scouting expedition would be part of that extended mission if it\u2019s approved. A decision is expected within the next several months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This selfie of NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at a drilled sample site called \u201cOkoruso,\u201d on the Naukluft Plateau of lower Mount Sharp. The scene combines several images taken with the rover\u2019s Mars Hand Lens Imager on May 11. NASA says one of the Curiosity rover\u2019s future tasks&nbsp;could be to check out sites [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2927,367,190],"class_list":["post-19336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-curiosity","tag-mars","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}