Curiosity and punch

    The Curiosity rover completes the 2012 Mars exploration cycle. As a result of movement in recent days, he examined a new type of surface that was observed from a satellite. The rover chose a goal for the upcoming use of its drill and obtain a sample of hard rock. The drilling process itself will begin in 2013, and the rover team is preparing to go for the Christmas holidays.
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    The place named Glenelg was chosen as an intermediate goal of the study, before the implementation of the main task - the study of Mount Sharpe (Aeolides). Glenelg seemed interesting to scientists in that a small area of ​​Gale Crater had three types of different surfaces. One segment bore traces of alluvial formation, i.e. was formed under the influence of water - it was planted. The second - was determined from the satellite as a very solid type of soil with a high degree of thermal inertia inherent in rock - there the rover stopped now. The third type of surface is much older than the previous two. This can be seen in a much larger number of small meteorite craters on its surface. (More on the geology of Gale Crater ).
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    A site that has a hard surface and high thermal inertia is a lowland called Yellowknife Bay. Yellowknife is a small town in Canada, from which many geological expeditions of American geologists began, and the landing site was named after him. "Yellowknife Bay" got its name from what looked like a dried up pond.
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    (“Pond” at the bottom left, a bluish horizontal stripe in the center — basalt sands)

    The descent began there in September, but Curiosity lingered for a long time in the Rocknest site.
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    There he excavated, explored Martian sand and tested all his scientific instruments on it. There he made his beautiful self-portrait.(by the way, animation of the manipulator’s movement was added there, where a secret technique with a “disappeared” hand is visible). Finally, after the research with CheMin and SAM , the main analytical scientific tools, was completed, the rover moved on.

    After driving 20 meters, he stopped again. And lingered for a week. This time he took a comfortable position to carefully shoot Yellowknife Bay.
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    (a good selection of panoramas )

    At the same time, the purpose for the first use of the drill was tentatively named. The point was called Point Lake.
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    About the drill, you need to tell separately.
    Partially, the tool repeats an ordinary household punch. It works on the same principle. Only if in the case of construction work, the crushed wall material needs to be thrown away so as not to impede the rotation of the drill, is Curiosity interesting for this powder. Therefore, to obtain it, a special device is provided.
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    The drill rotates inside the sleeve, into which the powder resulting from drilling the rock falls. Thanks to the spiral grooves of the drill, the powder moves inside the sleeve and enters the double chamber. From the chamber, the collected rock is discharged outward and enters the tube of the CHIMRA device ( visible on the left ).
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    I already talked about CHIMRA when it came to the first soil bucket fences. But you can repeat a little. This device is in the turret of the manipulator. Its purpose is to sift the crushed Martian rock to prepare the sample for loading into the rover's internal devices.
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    CheMin requires a powder with a grain size of not more than 150 microns. SAM is less demanding, grains up to 1 mm are suitable for it. In order to prepare both those and other samples, a lot of effort is required by both design engineers and operators of the rover.
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    The sifted sample enters through the funnels of the soil sampling device, which at other times are closed by covers.
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    The peculiarity of the drill device determines a very thorough process of choosing a suitable site and drilling itself.
    When overly intensive penetration into the ground, the sleeve can easily clog. At home, you can easily pull the drill out of the hole, and get rid of excess crumbs, and on Mars this thing will be very problematic.

    If the drill bit encounters too soft a section of rock or a cavity in general, then a sharp jerk forward could even damage the drill or the servos of the manipulator. To insure against such an accident, two stops are located on the sides of the drill, which will protect against excessive jerking and shock.
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    Another important factor is the displacement of the drilling object or the rover itself. If the specimen is not securely fixed, and the rover will not stand on a horizontal surface, and the coupling with the soil of its wheels will not be reliable, then the pressure can cause displacement and changes in the angle of the hole. If this moment is not determined, then the drill or drill may be damaged, which again will be very regrettable in the conditions of another planet.

    The rover has spare drills, but there is only one drill, and it was calculated for at least 20 holes made. It can do more if NASA is very scrupulous in carrying out work.
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    ( Bottom left - one of two pencil cases with spare drills )

    Curiously, the most dangerous find for the Curiosity drill would be liquid. Many are still convinced that the rover is looking for water, and even “original” jokes about oil cannot be avoided when the news “The USA has started drilling Mars” is heard. In this case, any liquid will turn the soil into dirt, which will irreversibly contaminate the internal cavity of the drill or CHIMRA. Even if the holes do not clog completely, adhering dirt will constantly affect the cleanliness of the results of all subsequent samples.

    Liquid water on Mars, in the crater of Gale should not be. At least at a depth of 5 cm, to which the drill climbs. But some minerals, including ancient clay, which NASA wants to find, may contain water in a bound state. As a result, an increase in pressure or temperature can lead to the release of a small amount of water. To prevent this, before deciding to launch the drill, scientists will conduct a full-scale analysis of the sample.

    Right next to the first candidate, Curiosity has now stopped. NASA ignored Point Lake, the rover moved further down the bay in search of an interesting site, and found it in a few days.
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    Formats more
    The first impression is that it is some kind of sedimentary, not volcanic rock. So, her research may turn out to be much more promising in terms of detecting organics. Hydrocarbons would be better preserved in clay, but there can also be very interesting finds.

    According to NASA, the drilling process itself will begin after the New Year (or Christmas, it's hard to say what they mean “after the holidays”, let's hope that they take them more than two weeks). The drilling process itself lasts from 1 to 2 months. Such a long period is due precisely to the reasons described above: a long candidate analysis process, slow drilling, constant monitoring of the position of the drill, rover, stone.

    In the meantime, the rover chose its target and moved along the bottom of the "bay", they found many interesting objects for research.

    One find, even geologists commented with the words “I hope Cutiosity is not going to look into it, otherwise I saw something similar in the movie ...”
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    ( false color to increase detail )

    Such bubbles, in some cases resembling hatched eggs, began to occur only when the rover approached the “shore” of the “bay”. At the bottom, another surprise awaited him
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    Stones with white veins are quite common on Earth. Such layers occur when the main rock is cracked and another mineral fills the cracks. Most often this happens under the influence of water. Given that most of the geological history, rich in liquid water, is associated with the formation of sulfates, this white mineral may turn out to be gypsum (CaSO4 • 2H2O). Since gypsum is rich in water, its presence can be indirectly determined by the DAN, which scans the soil under Curiosity for hydrogen.

    The shape of the cracks allows geologists to assume that these are syneresis cracks. This is a special form of cracks that occurs at the bottom of water bodies not as a result of drying, but as a result of a change in the degree of salinity of the water. If you have the courage to continue thinking about the history of this reservoir, you can recall that just the change of geological eras from Noachian to Hesperian is characterized by the saturation of Martian water with sulfur and chlorine salts due to volcanic eruptions. However, the hypothesis that this “bay” is three billion years old seems too unbelievable.

    The same veins are visible on the rock that will be drilled, so that we will soon have rich information about the geology of this place.
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    ( false color )

    UPD Still, Curiosity is an unpredictable girl. She examined the stone and drove on. It may still return to Point Lake, but not a fact.
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