Sunday 30th December Sol 143

Gale Crater is named after Walter Frederick Gale, an Australian astronomer in the early 20^th century (1865-1945).  He would have approved of the search for habitable environments in Gale because he, like the more famous Percival Lowell, believed he saw canals on Mars through his telescope.  The search for habitable environments or life has switched between optimism and pessimism throughout the history of Mars studies.

After the first Mariner 4 images of the martian surface returned in 1964 and the Viking lander analyses in 1976 it was thought by many that life in the present day, or perhaps ever, had not been present on Mars.   However, the history of martian studies is that our view of the planet changes as the resolution of imagery improves.  The first Mariner 4 images were 100s km per pixel, today Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter returns stereo, 25 cm/pixel images.  Similarly, as we have approached the different rock outcrops in Glenelg, our view of them has become clearer and we can make an accurate interpretation.  The Mastcam and Mahli camera ‘hand lens’, together with the ability of Curiosity to drive right up to outcrops,  are changing our view of Mars in the same way that the improved imagery from Walter Gale’s telescope, through Mariner 4 to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have.