Wednesday 26th September Sol 50

We have travelled 50 metres in one sol, a new record and a great help for achieving the mission aims.

We are also considering data on our calibration rock target.  One of the things we will do with such rock analyses is compare them to other martian igneous rocks (meteorites, clasts analysed by previous landers). 

This is important because basalts are formed by melting of planetary mantles.  Thus when we determine the composition of the basalts we can see what the martian mantle is composed of, and the martian mantle is volumetrically the greatest part of a planet.  The red colour of Mars shows that the martian mantle is iron rich.  That in turn suggests that Mars has a relatively small metallic core compared to the Earth for instance. 

You can see the way the wind has preferentially eroded one face of the Jake_Matijevich basalt rock to leave a pyramidal shape.