jbridges
Subscribe to jbridges's posts2nd January 2016 Sol 1211
This HiRISE image taken from Mars Reconaissance Orbiter shows Curiosity in its current position at the margin of the steep slope of the Bagnold dunes.
28th December 2015 Sol 1206
The MSL team is taking a break from operations for a few days. We have dumped the Greenhorn drill tailings and are progressing on the Bagnold Dunes campaign. In this MastCam image you can see how grains have run down the steep sides of the dunes.
13th December 2015 Sol 1192
The image shows a MAHLI close up image of the Bagnold dunes sand. The first striking thing about the mm-size grains is how rounded they are. That is a crucial feature of wind formed sediments – both recent like Bagnold dunes and ancient like the Stimson rocks.The dune grains have eroded, collected (and abraded to […]
27th November 2015 Sol 1176
We have reached the Bagnold Dunes and are driving through a gap. The dark colour is due to the iron and magnesium-rich composition of the sand grains (minerals like olivine and pyroxene). The shape of the dunes, which are a few tens of cm high suggest the sand has moved from right to left in […]
13th November 2015 Sol 1164
We are nearing the next major phase of the mission – the Bagnold Dunes campaign. These were the first feature we saw with the MARDI descent imager as we approached the landing site with the Skycrane landing system (see inset image to see the dark dunes). We are a couple of drives from these large […]
29th October 2015 Sol 1148
We have completed another drill so that we now have the Big Sky and Greenhorn drill holes. As the team becomes more experienced we are getting quicker at producing drillholes and so we can get more analyses. The sample wheel on CheMin allows a planned 27 samples from drilling (or scooping) for X-ray diffraction analysis […]
13th October 2015 Sol 1133
Here is the latest selfie – perhaps the best yet. It is from the Big Sky drill site (you can see the Big Sky drill hole and the drill tailings) in the lower left. Curiosity itself is looking a bit dusty and with a few punctures in the wheels, but otherwise fine. We are planning […]
8th October 2015 Sol 1128
This MAHLI image (taken at nighttime and illuminated by LEDs) shows the precision of the ChemCam LIBS shooting at about 2.5 m distance from the ChemCam on the mast. You can see a ’10×1′ array of shots up the side of the 1.5 cm wide drillhole and a ‘5×1’ array in the fresh drill tailings. […]
1st October 2015 Sol 1121
Our latest drillhole has gone successfully, at Big Sky. We will compare the compositional and X-ray diffraction data mineral data to that of the Buckskin drillhole to try and understand the unusual silica enrichments. Are we looking at compositions not unlike terrestrial sandstones formed by erosion of a differentiated crust, or is the composition dominated […]
22nd September 2015 Sol 1112
I have been Geo Science Theme Lead GSTL for the last two sol plan (sols 1112-1113). One of the main topics we have been discussing is where to drill next. This rock called Meeteetse – a Wyoming Native American name meaning meeting place – contains some of the high silica contents we have been finding recently […]
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