MARS: CURIOSITY u krateru GALE

Obično nakon koji mjesec znanstvenici objave sastav materijala koji su ispitivali.
Do tada skromno pokušavam odgovorit što vidimo.
Ovo bi mogla biti glina, čiji je mineral montmorilonit, ili što uobičajeno nazivamao "Bentonit". To je ono što se kod ovih ispitivanja uobičajeno naziva skupnim imenom "smektititi". Kao što vidiomo hidrirani monmorilonit sadrži i vodu, čija količina varira, ovisno od uvjeta u kojim je mineral nastao. Ovakve gline obično nalazimo u u prašumskim i termalnim područjima, morskom dnu itd...
Važno je napomenuti da kod zagrijavanja iznad 150% izgubi vodu.
To će biti nekakav reper o načinu nastajanja. 
Neću se spuštati dalje u ovu tematiku, jer i nisam neki specijalist za ovo područje...

Sols 1341-1343: A change of plans

13 May 2016

The MSL team was originally planning a long drive this weekend, but there was enough interest in the fresh rock surfaces exposed near the rover that we decided to investigate them instead.  Before we could decide whether to "bump" to the rocks that were broken when the rover drove over them, we had to make sure they could be well imaged by MAHLI.  Taking MAHLI images of nearly vertical faces is difficult, because the turret at the end of the arm must be placed close to the ground.  While the Strategic Rover Planner worked to find ways to get MAHLI close to the fresh surfaces, we planned pre-drive remote sensing and arm activities:  On Sol 1341, ChemCam will observe its calibration target, a bedrock target named "Kobos 3," and the wall of the Okoruso drill hole.  Mastcam will then provide context for the ChemCam observations and take stereo mosaics of "Naob" and other bedrock near the rover.  Later that afternoon, the DRT will be used to brush dust off a brighter layer in the bedrock, with MAHLI images taken before and after the brushing.  We also planned close-up MAHLI images on a nearby bedrock target dubbed "Mariquita" and a lower-resolution MAHLI mosaic of the area including Mariquita.  All of this MAHLI work made for a very busy day for me as MAHLI uplink lead! 

APXS will measure the chemistry of the brush spot overnight, before another busy sol begins.  The arm will be stowed to allow a Mastcam multispectral observation of the brush spot before the rover bumps over to the broken rocks.  During the drive, DAN will actively measure the subsurface hydrogen content by turning on its neutron generator.  After acquiring post-drive images, the rover will take a nap before CheMin performs another overnight analysis of the Okoruso drill sample.  Early on the morning of Sol 1343, Navcam will search for clouds and dust devils, and Mastcam will measure the optical thickness of dust in the atmosphere.  Later that sol, ChemCam will use the newly-validated AEGIS software to acquire LIBS measurements of an autonomously-selected target.  Of course, we are hoping that the software continues to work well!
by Ken Herkenhoff

Noćno snimanje-osvjetljenje s "LED" lampom. 
Na taj način će se moći reintpretirati prave boje minerala, onako kako
bi ih vidjeli pod čistom sunčevmo svjetlošću  kod nas na Zemlji (bez utjecaja boje marsovog neba). 
Na tako popravljene fotografije ćemo morati sačekati neko vrijeme.

Ero wrote:Sol 1333 RMI mozaik.

Radi se o ChemCam kameri, koja je inače predviđena za istraživanja na nekoliko metara udaljenosti. 
Prikazano se odnosi na područje udaljeno...hja...6-8 km. Radi se o području koje se nalazi na putu uspinjanja do konačnog cilja na Mt Sharp. 
Dakle, ako se preživi tuda bi se moglo proći kroz nekih par godina, a možda i prije. Ovisno koliko će napredovanje zadržavati "dosadni" znanstvenici . Kako smo vidjeli upravo su nedavno inzistirli povratak do kamenja, za koje su im laserska ispitivanja indicirala bogati sadržaj silike.

Vitaly Egorov to pretvori u foto u boji.
Nije objasnio kako, osim što treba neki foto u boji, koji je napravljen u blizini tog područja.
Evo kako to izgleda na kraju:




A za gornje mu je poslužila ova panoramska snimka u boji, u kojoj je označeno snimano područje.

Evo kako bi po mome gornje izgledalo ako bi bilo snimano pod našim plavim nebom.
Naravno, približno...Bolje ne bih mogao ni kad bih imao sve parametre jer  nemam potrebne 
programske mogućnosti za pretvorbu boja u skladu s stvarnom bojom neba na Marsu.

Sols 1344-1345: Touch and Go

16 May 2016
The drive planned last weekend completed successfully, moving MSL less than 6 meters into position for contact science on the rocks broken by the rover wheels.  Planning is restricted this week, so we are planning 2 sols' worth of activities.  The first sol (1344) includes a "touch and go" that requires extra Rover Planner staffing, as both arm activities and a drive are planned.  It's great to be able to do so much in one plan, but we had to cram a lot of stuff into Sol 1344 because the drive has to be completed before the afternoon MRO communications relay to allow another drive to be planned on Wednesday.  So we had to decide which scientific observations were most important and work to fit them into the plan.  I helped select a target for a ChemCam observation of "Impalila," one of the freshly-exposed rock surfaces, and was glad to see that it made it into the plan.  Mastcam will acquire a multispectral observation of the broken rocks before MAHLI takes pictures of "Stampriet," Impalila, "Narubis," and "Swartmodder."  As I mentioned in my previous blog, it's difficult to get MAHLI close to these targets, so the camera will be placed no closer than 5 cm from any of the targets; we can't get any closer than 25 cm to Swartmodder.  After MAHLI imaging is completed and the arm stowed, the rover will drive toward the west, hopefully getting back to the Sol 1311 location, where the rover was before we decided to return to the Lubango area. 

Sol 1345 observations cannot be targeted because they will be taken after the drive, so ChemCam and Mastcam will perform routine sky measurements.  That's it!
by Ken Herkenhoff

sol 1344...mislim da je ovo povratak na poziciju u blizinu nekadašnje  sol 1311.

Sols 1346-1347: Onward to Fracture Town

18 May 2016

We are coming up on the edge of Naukluft plateau (again!). The plan for Sol 1346 starts off with ChemCam observations of the targets “Etusis” and “Etiro”, to continue measuring the variations in silica abundance around large fractures. Mastcam has a context image of these two targets, plus a mosaic looking ahead to an area we’ve been calling “Fracture Town”. After that, the rover will drive and do standard post-drive imaging, plus CheMin will do another analysis of the Okoruso sample.
On Sol 1347, the rover has a number of atmospheric observations, plus a ChemCam observation using the AEGIS software to target a nice patch of bedrock automatically. This is a new capability, and it’s really nice to be able to get some data after we drive without having Earth in the loop!
by Ryan Anderson
-Ryan is a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

"Crveni planet"...na donjem primjeru vidimo i zašto smo ga tako nazvali. 
Sloj crvene prašine prekriva stvarnu sliku Marsa.

Za znanost  vrijedni komadi, slučajno odlomljeni  za vrijeme vožnje.
Nije čekić tek tako glavno "oruđe" geologa. 

Malo ruske šale...