March 14th 2013 Sol 215

The results from our drill hole are showing that the John Kein rocks include mudstone, with about 20% of it composed of a clay called smectite.  Clays form in the presence of water and we know that this mineral often forms from neutral to mildly alkaline brines, typically at <100oC.  The high percentage of clay suggests that these rocks were deposited over a long period of time, rather than in a few shortlived floods.

So the John Klein mudstones were habitable. However, that doesnt mean they were necessarily inhabited by microbial life.  For the time being we will regard it as an uninhabited habitat.  Unequivocably determining the presence of past life at a site like the one we are at, might take the dedicated life detection instruments of a future Mars mission in 2020 or Mars Sample Return. 

The image shows a ChemMin X-ray diffraction pattern with ‘Debye’ lines.  The smaller radii near the centre of the image correpsond to smaller two theta angles (the angle through which the X-rays are reflected off atomic planes in the minerals) and show the presence of pyllosilicate (clay) that we didnt see in our first CheMin analysis of soil at the Rocknest site.

This is a first for Mars exploration and MSL is generating a lot of interest in scientific and wider communities.  For instance last night I gave a public lecture to over 150 people at the Institite of Physics/University of Derby about the MSL mission, and my collaborator Dr Susanne Schwenzer of the Open University gave a talk to an audience of 160 at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, Oxfordshire.