On the road of life, sometimes it is important to stop and give me your sieve. Although NASA rover Curiosity is making a long journey to the base of the sharp mountain, where will investigate the geological history of Mars, also shows long scientifically the local terrain and take some incredible photos.
The rover has many months before your arrival to the acute mountain, but it is a pause in an outcropping nicknamed "The Kimberley" for its resemblance to a similar area in the Northwest of Australia. Here, has taken some stunning images, such as the panorama of mosaic from 27 March stitched together by the graphic designer and enthusiastic mayor Jason space. The region contains a large number of sedimentary sandstone, which is made of small grains held together by a matrix of cement - how. The characteristics of cement, which can be anywhere in crumbly and mild to strong and hard, can tell scientists much about the geological history of this area. Curiosity team plans to drill sandstone and shows and has even chosen a face beautiful rock to do some science.
In preparation for this, the necessary equipment for "give me" CHIMRA instrument (which balls, strainers and delivery of samples to the internal laboratory of the robot). CHIMRA contains a large spring that was tense and released to vibrate, it cleaned the dust from previous sampling operation in a region called John Klein. After this, the curiosity was free to take new samples and learn about the composition of the outcropping Kimberley.
Of course, when it comes to remote science through 140 million miles certain problems arise. First, curiosity struggled to recover images taken of the instrument CHIMRA, which were needed to determine if it had been successful in cleaning out the thwacking. But even after the equipment downloaded photos, the rover predicted that it moves his arm the way that was intended for the operation of sampling could fall outside its security parameters very strict, something known as a "failure". This stopped all activity until planners could revise its commands and discover a way to do what they needed in a more secure manner.
Because of this, the curiosity has been in the same place for the last few days, which has left the team make more detailed plans. These include taking close pictures of some small landslides probably caused by vibration as the rover drove up to the outcrop. This weekend, the rover will have more photos, as well as shoot some rocks with lasers and x-rays to better understand their composition, so watch for future exciting images and science.
