EXPLORING ANCIENT MARS WITH THE CURIOSITY ROVER: THE MOUNT SHARP EXPEDITION IN GALE CRATER

The instruments of the Curiosity Rover work together to interrogate Mars as this robotic laboratory on wheels moves from site to site in an ancient crater. Cameras, microscopes, and elemental analyzers all work together to find soils to scoop and rocks to drill that will tell us more about ancient Mars. Once a target is identified small samples of powdered material are then delivered to two instruments in the interior of the Curiosity Rover where even more detailed chemical analysis takes place. Mission challenges include not only navagating to Mars and landing a one ton six wheel vehicle safely on the surface, but also designing instruments and rover systems to operate robustly in the harsh radiation and temperature environment of the red planet.

A prime exploration target for the Curiosity rover is the central mound (Mt. Sharp) in Gale crater that shows a diverse mineralogy and layered structures from orbital infrared spectroscopy and high resolution imaging. However, many sites of interest including an ancient lake bed have been found along the way.

The composition of minerals and the isotopic composition of gases in the atmosphere and of atoms and compounds released from rocks tells us much about how conditions on present Mars have changed from the distant past. We will discuss how results from Curiosity on Mars have revealed the age of rocks and wind erosion rates of surface materials. We will compare Curiosity results with studies of meteorites that have made their way from Mars to Earth following crater-forming impacts on Mars. We will tell the story of the search for organic compounds with Curiosity and its organics analyzer SAM. All these studies are designed to study the potential of ancient Mars to support microbial life and better understand why our sister planet is so different from Earth.