NASA Mars Rover's First Soil Analysis Yields Surprises
January 20, 2004
The first use of the tools on the arm of NASA's Mars Exploration
Rover Spirit reveals puzzles about the soil it examined and raises
anticipation about what the tool will find during its studies of a
martian rock.
Today and overnight tonight, Spirit is using its microscope and two
up-close spectrometers on a football-sized rock called Adirondack,
said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"We're really happy with the way the spacecraft continues to work
for us," Trosper said. The large amount of data -- nearly 100
megabits -- transmitted from Spirit in a single relay session
through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft today "is like getting an
upgrade to our Internet connection."
Scientists today reported initial impressions from using Spirit's
alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, Moessbauer spectrometer and
microscopic imager on a patch of soil that was directly in front of
the rover after Spirit drove off its lander Jan. 15.
"We're starting to put together a picture of what the soil at this
particular place in Gusev Crater is like. There are some puzzles and
there are surprises," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the suite of instruments on
Spirit and on Spirit's twin, Opportunity.
One unexpected finding was the Moessbauer spectrometer's detection
of a mineral called olivine, which does not survive weathering well.
This spectrometer identifies different types of iron-containing
minerals; scientists believe many of the minerals on Mars contain
iron. "This soil contains a mixture of minerals, and each mineral
has its own distinctive Moessbauer pattern, like a fingerprint,"
said Dr. Goestar Klingelhoefer of Johannes Gutenberg University,
Mainz, Germany, lead scientist for this instrument.
The lack of weathering suggested by the presence of olivine might be
evidence that the soil particles are finely ground volcanic
material, Squyres said. Another possible explanation is that the
soil layer where the measurements were taken is extremely thin, and
the olivine is actually in a rock under the soil.
Scientists were also surprised by how little the soil was disturbed
when Spirit's robotic arm pressed the Moessbauer spectrometer's
contact plate directly onto the patch being examined. Microscopic
images from before and after that pressing showed almost no change.
"I thought it would scrunch down the soil particles," Squyres said.
"Nothing collapsed. What is holding these grains together?"
Information from another instrument on the arm, an alpha particle X-
ray spectrometer, may point to an answer. This instrument "measures
X-ray radiation emitted by Mars samples, and from this data we can
derive the elemental composition of martian soils and rocks," said
Dr. Johannes Brueckner, rover science team member from the Max
Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. The instrument found
the most prevalent elements in the soil patch were silicon and iron.
It also found significant levels of chlorine and sulfur,
characteristic of soils at previous martian landing sites but unlike
soil composition on Earth.
Squyres said, "There may be sulfates and chlorides binding the
little particles together." Those types of salts could be left
behind by evaporating water, or could come from volcanic eruptions,
he said. The soil may not have even originated anywhere near
Spirit's landing site, because Mars has dust storms that
redistribute fine particles around the planet. The next target for
use of the rover's full set of instruments is a rock, which is more
likely to have originated nearby.
Spirit landed in the Connecticut-sized Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 (EST
and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time). In coming weeks and months,
according to plans, it will examine rocks and soil for clues about
whether the past environment there was ever watery and possibly
suitable to sustaining life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover,
Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time;
9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on
the opposite side of the planet.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional
information about the project are available from JPL at
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca,
N.Y., at http://athena.cornell.edu .
