I am visiting the French ChemCam HQ in the CNRS lab based in Toulouse. Some of the development of ChemCam was done by the group here. The ChemCam ‘ops’ role switches between Toulouse and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in New Mexico. This right navigation camera image shows that we have started on our way out of Yellowknife […]
We are continuing our work at Shaler on Mars. Meanwhile, one of the important research aspects of MSL and Mars research generally is to identify analogue sites on Earth. Studying similar terrains on Earth can help us to understand Yellowknife Bay. This weekend a group of us from Leicester University, together with Dr Susanne Schwenzer […]
Curiosity Inspecting Shaler. This HazCam image shows our location at Shaler and the tracks left as we have manoeuvred along the outcrop to look at the planar and cross bedding structures. The low angle of view from the cameras underneath the main body of the rover gives an idea of the thickness of the layers relative to […]
I am taking my turn at being the GeoMin group theme lead this sol. I am also the ChemCam science theme group member. That is an enjoyable job, choosing potential targets for the ChemCam Laser analyses but as always we have to balance the energy and time requirements to analyse, photograph and drive. Here is […]
This is a NavCam image showing that we have successfully placed the robotic arm turret against this Point Lake outcrop in order to get MAHLI imagery and an APXS analysis.
We are carefully positioning ourselves for Point Lake. We use the Navigation cameras (NavCam) to do this as they have the most accurate 3d information for taking ChemCam analyses and positioning the robotic arm. This right hand lens Navigation Camera image is beginning to show us close detail of Point Lake and its intriguing surface. Working out the origin of Point Lake […]
The latest puzzle for us is Point Lake. This small (tens of cm high) promotory in Yellowknife has unusual textures which looked at from our current distance might be gas bubbles (vesicles) in a lava or voids in a sedimentary rock. If it really is a lava flow it would have poured over the underlying sediments and […]
The first paper about our results after landing has just been published. Its a short paper in Science with the title ‘Martian Fluvial Conglomerates at Gale Crater’ and it is led by Becky Williams of the Planetary Science Institute of Arizona. Seeing the first MastCam images come down of the ‘Link’ outcrop was one of the highlights […]
We are holding a ChemCam meeting at the Cite de Espace, Toulouse. The Cite de Espace hosts an exhibition about Mars Science Laboratory and ChemCam. Our meeting is a mixture of talks about the instrument and science results in the first 280 sols. I gave a talk about fluids at Yellowknife Bay with ChemCam and UK collaborators. The […]
One of the things we tend to forget about, because it is working quietly in the background, is the communications network. Most of the data from Curiosity is returned via Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey. We use extremely high frequencies (Ka band). However, Mars Express (the European Orbiter) transmitted back some of the ChemCam data during […]
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