The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - July 20, 2023
The Mastcam-Z imager on Perseverance captured a series of images on July 6 that were stitched together to show a field of boulders deposited in Jezero Crater by a fast-moving river.
This sample, cored by Perseverance from a conglomerate rock called Emerald Lake, shows distinctly colored areas that are individual minerals transported by an ancient river on Mars.
When a geologist must ship rock samples 217 million miles for analysis, only the best specimens will do. This is why Perseverance, and the team of earthbound scientists supporting the Mars rover, were thrilled with the latest sample collected by the six-wheeled robo-geologist.
On Sol 832 – the 832nd Martian day of the Perseverance mission, or June 23 as we call it here on Earth – the astrogeologist collected the 20th drill core sample of Martian rock. While any given rock can tell a geologist a bit about the history of the planet they are on, the latest sample collected by Perseverance has a much larger story to tell about Mars' distant past.
The reason this particular sample is such a trove of information is because it is a conglomerate of various other rocks that washed down an ancient river and became cemented together in the now dry bed.
"Pebbles and boulders found in a river are messengers from afar," said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist from Caltech in Pasadena. "And while the water that created the Martian riverbed that Perseverance is currently exploring evaporated billions of years ago, the story carried by those waters remains fresh, stored in conglomerate rock."
So, by drilling into this conglomerate that the Perseverance team christened "Emerald Lake," the roving Martian geologist is collecting samples of multiple rocks and minerals.
Scientists will be able to look at each pebble and fragment in this core, dubbed "Otis Peak," to determine details such as its age, what the environmental conditions were like in the river when the conglomerate formed, and whether it contains signs of ancient microbial life.
"We're taking a page from the past," said Farley. "Prospectors looking for gold or diamonds in the old days often looked in rivers to determine whether there was any deposit of interest upstream. No need to hike up there to see – let the river do the work!"
While Emerald Lake is an intriguing find, Perseverance is not done with its river prospecting. On its trek to a nearby ridge called "Snowdrift Peak," the six-wheeled rover must cross a field of boulders deposited by the ancient river.
Along this traverse, the astrogeologist, and its support team here on Earth, will be looking for boulders worth sampling. These river rocks offer a large surface area for scientists to examine as the rover makes its way across the dry river bed. If a distinctive rock piques the team's interest, Perseverance can stop and take a sample.
"Whether the boulders appear intriguing enough for closer examination and possible sampling remains to be seen – literally," said Farley.
For earthbound researchers to fully study the intriguing rocks sampled by Perseverance, the specimens will need to be transported back to Earth.
The samples collected by the Mars exploration robot are sealed in titanium tubes that will allow the rocks and dirt inside to be transported back to Earth without being contaminated.
NASA is working with the European Space Agency on a mission to retrieve the Mars rock samples collected by Perseverance.
This Mars Sample Return mission will involve a lander carrying a Mars Ascent Vehicle, basically a rocket that will launch the samples to the Mars orbiter that will transport them back to Earth. With the orbiter slated to launch in 2027 and the lander in 2028, it is expected that the Martian dirt and rocks collected by the rover will be earthbound in 2030.
Upon the 2033 arrival, geoscientists and astrobiologists will be able to learn the stories Emerald Lake and the other samples collected by Perseverance have to tell about Mars' bygone geology and, perhaps, life.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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