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NASA NTRS2020

JSC-Rocknest: A Large-Scale Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) Based Soil Simulant for In-Situ Resource Utilization Water-Extraction Studies

The Johnson Space Center-Rocknest (JSC-RN) simulant was developed in response to a need by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) project for a simulant to be used in component and system testing for water extraction from Mars regolith. JSC-RN was designed to be chemically and mineralogically similar to material from the aeolian sand shadow named Rocknest in Gale Crater, particularly the 1-3 wt.% low temperature (<450 ºC) water release as measured by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the Curiosity rover. Sodium perchlorate, goethite, pyrite, ferric sulfate, regular and high capacity granular ferric oxide, and forsterite were added to a Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) base in order to match the mineralogy, evolved gases, and elemental chemistry of Rocknest. Mineral and rock components were sent to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver for mixing. Approximately 800 kg of JSC-RN was sent back to NASA in 5 gallon buckets, which were subsampled and characterized. All samples of the USGS-produced simulants had similar evolved gas profiles as a small prototype batch of JSC-RN made in JSC laboratories, with the exception of HCl, and were similar in terms of mineralogy and total chemistry. Also, all JSC-RN subsamples were homogenous and had similar mineralogy, total chemistry, and low-temperature evolved gas profiles as the Rocknest aeolian sand shadow examined with Curiosity’s instrument suite on Mars. In particular, the low temperature water releases were similar and the amount of water evolved from JSC-RN at <450 ºC was similar to the water content of Rocknest based on SAM water peak integrations. Overall, JSC-RN is ideally suited for ISRU studies of water extraction of global martian soil due to its excellent agreement with measured properties of martian soils and its proven feasibility for large-scale production.

Simulant↗
NASA NTRS2018

Thermal Operability Improvements for the Mars 2020 Rover Surface Mission

The Mars 2020 Rover is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18, 2021. One of the primary mission objectives for the Mars 2020 Rover is to perform in-situ science and collect a set of Martian regolith samples for possible future return to Earth. In order to meet mission requirements, 20 samples must be collected, assessed, and sealed during the prime mission (1.5 Martian years, approximately 1000 Sols). This requires that the Mars 2020 Rover operate in a much more efficient and autonomous manner than its predecessor, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover, Curiosity. The thermal designs of both Curiosity and the Mars 2020 Rover utilize warmup heaters to bring the actuators and cameras, located on the outside of the vehicle, up to their operating temperatures prior to use. These heaters consume energy during the mission. The Rover energy balance, between energy production and consumption, must be maintained in order to keep the mission moving safely forward. Increased efficiency in the way this warmup heater energy is allocated and used in the Mars 2020 Rover operations plan will result in more energy available for science and engineering activities. This paper discusses the improvements that were made in both hardware and software to improve the way the Mars 2020 Rover will operate thermally on Mars.

Lee, Chern-Jiin↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission: 2018 Status

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) continues its dual-mode mission of scientific exploration and programmatic support. Now in its 13th year of flight (and its 12th year in its low-altitude, sun-synchronous orbit around Mars), the spacecraft continues in its normal flight mode and its science instruments continue to acquire a treasure trove of data which is being used to study the Martian environment (surface, sub-surface, and atmosphere). To date (July 2018), more than 333 TB of scientific data have been returned to Earth. Building onto the 2017 IAC paper: “The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission: Continuing a Record of Exploration from Mars Orbit,” [1] this paper provides a 2018 status update on the MRO Mission. A signature event since the 2017 writing is the onset and evolution of a planet-encircling dust event (PEDE), the first such event since 2007. Additional recent science highlights for MRO include the discovery of mid-latitude ice cliffs, polar cap characterization, daily global mapping of the 2018 PEDE dust activity and the atmospheric thermal response, further characterization of the tantalizing recurring slope lineae (RSL), and continued detection of surface changes. Programmatically, UHF relay support for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity and the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) rover Opportunity continues at a pace that provides the engineers and scientists operating those surface vehicles timely information to support their mission planning and science analysis. Most of the landing site characterization requests for the NASA Mars 2020 rover and the ESA ExoMars Rover/Surface Platform (RSP) missions have been completed, with final acquisitions delayed due to the obscuring dust haze from the current PEDE. In parallel, the flight team has faced new engineering challenges as the spacecraft has aged. The team has developed and is implementing actions that are aimed at stretching spacecraft battery life. A new all-stellar capability using the spacecraft’s star trackers now allows for normal spacecraft operations without IMUs. In addition to its current relay duties, MRO will be synchronized to provide critical communications support for the InSight Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) event on November 26, 2018, and will be readied to support InSight’s critical commissioning phase with UHF relay support and environmental characterization. A new split-pass relay capability has been developed which will allow MRO to relay with two surface vehicles in “close proximity” on the same overflight, i.e. the InSight lander and the Curiosity rover. Extended for another year of operations by NASA, this paper will highlight recent scientific progress and describe actions that will extend MRO’s life well into the 2020’s as a key element of the Mars Exploration Program.

Zurek, Richard W.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Data Accountability and Uncertainty Analysis for the Mars Science Laboratory

This paper presents machine learning-based approaches to automate and optimize the detection of volume loss for the downlink process of telemetry data from the Mars Curiosity Rover. The Curiosity observes volume loss and data corruption, requiring re-transmits from the rover and Ground Data System Analysts (GDSA) to monitor the data flow. To resolve this issue, we created a data pipeline to accumulate data from various data sources in the downlink process and detect where the data is missed. In this paper, we benchmarked different methodologies based on the accuracy and excitability of them to identify whether a downlink data that is received to the ground system is complete or incomplete. Our results show that machine learning methods can improve the performance of the GDSA by 55% while the user can diagnose why data is missed and provide an explanation for the data accountability problem.

Chowdhury, Ameera↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Modeling Water-Rock Reactions Beneath the Greenheugh Pediment, Gale Crater, Mars

The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has been exploring the clay rich Glen Torridon unit in Gale crater since sol 2300 of the mission [1]. As identified in orbital data [2], this clay rich area [3] in the Murray formation is overlain with the Greenheugh Pediment unit to the south, which is part of the Stimson Formation [4]. Curiosity acquired the drill sample Hutton in the Upper Murray formation 2 – 3 meters below the Greenheugh Pediment [5,6]. This study uses thermochemical modelling to investigate the hypothesis for alteration in the Murray formation below the Greenheugh Pediment. Specifically, if the contact between the Greenheugh Pediment and Murray sediments was a conduit for diagenetic fluids (a low water/rock scenario) or if subaerial weathering altered the Murray sediments before cementation began (a high water/rock scenario) [6]. Here, we report on preliminary modeling where we have reacted the chemical composition for the Hutton drill sample with Gale Portage Water (GPW) at 25 °C, 50 °C and 200 °C, for 10% Fe3+/Fetot of the host rock.

SMR Turner↗
NASA NTRS2021

Gravity Wave Observations by the Mars Science Laboratory REMS Pressure Sensor and Comparison with Mesoscale Atmospheric Modeling with MarsWRF

Surface pressure measurements on Mars have revealed a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena. The Mars Science Laboratory Rover Environmental Monitoring Station pressure sensor dataset is now the longest duration record of surface pressure on Mars. We use the first 2580 martian sols, nearly 4 Mars years,of measurements to identify atmospheric pressure waves with periods of tens of minutes to hours using wavelet analysis on residual pressure after the tidal harmonics are removed. We find these waves have a clear diurnal cycle with strongest activity in the early morning and late evening and a seasonal cycle with the strongest waves in the second half of the martian year (Ls= 180-360°). The strongest such waves of the entire mission occurred during the Mars Year 34 global dust storm. Comparable atmospheric waves are identified using atmospheric modeling with the MarsWRF general circulation model in a “nested” high spatial resolution mode. With the support of the modeling, we find these waves best fit the expected properties of inertia-gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths of O(100s) of km. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY Measuring air pressure from the surface of Mars has revealed a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena. The Curiosity rover's record or surface air pressure is now the longest yet made on Mars.We use the first ~8 years of Curiosity's pressure observations to look for atmospheric waves with periods of tens of minutes to hours. We find these waves have a clear pattern in their daily behavior with the strongest activity in the early morning and late evening and a seasonal cycle with the strongest waves in the second half of the martian year (Northern hemisphere fall and winter). The strongest such waves occurred in 2018 during a global dust storm. We find comparable waves in atmospheric modeling. With the support of modeling, we find these waves best fit the expected properties of buoyancy waves forced by airflow over topography with horizontal wavelengths of 100-1000 km.

Scott D Guzewich↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Constraining Alteration Processes Along the Siccar Point Unconformity in Gale Crater: Results from the Sample Analysis at Mars Instrument

A driving factor for sending the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity rover to Gale Crater was the orbital detection of clay minerals in the Glen Torridon (GT) region suggesting a past aqueous environment was habitable and could contain organic evidence of past microbiology. The objective of the Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)instrument was to detect organic evidence of past microbiology and volatile bearing mineralogy that would inform if past geochemical conditions would have supported microbiology in the GT region. The Siccar Point unconformity occurs between the underlying GT mudstone and the overlying Stimsons and stone of the Green heugh Pediment has evidence of enhanced alteration in the mudstone just below the contact suggestive of aqueous processes favorable for microbial activity. The origin of the altered material includes subaerial weathering, alteration from fluids moving along unconformity, upward fluid percolation from the mudstone or downward fluid percolation from the Pediment 1,2,3,4,5The objectives of this work were to 1) Utilize the S AM-EGA results to characterize the geochemistry and mineralogy above and below the Siccar Point unconformity through analysis of drilled samples in the3 GT mudstones and an overlying pediment sandstone. and 2) Utilize SAM-EGA results to constrain alteration scenario(s) below the unconformity.

B Sutter↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TEM and XRD Investigation of Impact Glass Alteration Products: Amorphous Materials, Phyllosilicates and Everything in Between

Impact cratering is one of the most ubiquitous geologic processes shaping the surface of all solid bodies in our solar system. Impacts are also a major source of clay minerals and poorly crystalline, clay-like materials on Earth and Mars[1,2].These phyllosilicates and related clay-like phases comprise an incredibly complex group of materials, and their characterization, even in controlled laboratory settings, remains a challenging endeavor. The nature and origin of clay minerals and amorphous materials on Mars, which form a major component (~20-70 wt %) of rock and soil samples in Gale Crater as determined by the CheMin instrument on Curiosity, have remained ambiguous[3]. These amorphous phases likely fall on a spectrum between pristine volcanic and/or impact-produced primary materials and clay minerals and related phases formed from aqueous alteration. Amorphous materials are common weathering products in terrestrial sediments, soils, and paleosols [e.g., 4,5].Primary impact materials (glass, melt rocks)are comparable in some ways to those generated volcanically [6], and so it may be possible that an amorphous component is preserved within altered impactites. There are hundreds of thousands of impact craters on Mars, and Curiosity and Perseverance are currently exploring ancient impact craters. We hypothesize that the sediments and lithologies in Gale and Jezero Craters and elsewhere contain altered impact products; it is therefore important to better understand the composition and structure of these materials. Here we present the first results from a study characterizing materials produced from impact glass alteration–clay minerals, poorly crystalline/amorphous materials–in terrestrial craters using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD)and chemical (EDS) analysis.

Impact crater↗
NASA NTRS2020

Rimmed Wheel Performance on the Mars Science Laboratory Scarecrow Rover

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover experienced increasing wheel damage beginning in October 2013. While the wheels were designed to operate with considerable damage, the rate at which damage was occurring was unexpected and raised concerns regarding wheel life expectancy. As of Sol 2555 (10-14-19), there are two broken grousers on the left middle wheel, and one broken grouser on the right middle wheel. One possible scenario, albeit remote, is that enough grousers break on a wheel such that unconstrained portions of the wheel could contact the cable running from the rover motor controller assembly to the wheel's drive actuator. If the cable to a drive actuator is damaged, that wheel may no longer respond to commands. To make progress towards a navigation goal position, that wheel would need to be dragged. To mitigate the risk of damaging a cable running to a wheel’s drive actuator, the unconstrained portion of a wheel could be strategically shed by performing driving maneuvers on an immovable rock. What would remain after wheel shedding is a rimmed wheel (the outer 1/3 of the wheel). We studied the feasibility of remotely commanding the rover to perform the shed maneuver on one of its front wheels. To inform whether or not to shed the wheels, we tested the performance of driving on one or more rimmed wheels in flight. This led to a two-month test campaign in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mars Yard using the Scarecrow testbed rover. Driving and steering performance was characterized on a variety of terrain types and slopes in a worst-case rimmed wheeled configuration. Test results indicate that if wheel shedding could be successfully executed in flight, Curiosity could continue to drive indefinitely on rimmed wheels.

Graser, Evan↗
NASA NTRS2020

Mars 2020: Mission, Science Objectives and Build

If all goes according to plan, in February 2021, NASA will land the Mars 2020 Rover on the surface of Mars. Mars 2020 is the latest in a series of unmanned Martian robotic rover missions that are part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the planet. The mission seeks to address high-priority goals for Mars exploration, including answering questions about the potential for past life on Mars. Mars 2020 will look for evidence of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, as well as look for signs of past microbial life itself. The mission also seeks to understanding the geological history and evolution of the planet, and to prepare for future robotic and human exploration. The Mars 2020 spacecraft and rover borrow heavily from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission and Curiosity rover which landed on Mars in 2012. This reliance on proven technology helps reduce mission risk and cost. Mars 2020 does contain new technology, including a drill for coring samples from Martian rock and soil and a Sample Caching System for gathering, storing and preserving samples for possible future return to Earth. In this paper, we will review the primary goals of the Mars 2020 Mission and look at the reasons for choosing Jezero Crater as the landing site. We will discuss the design and build of the Mars 2020 Spacecraft system and its similarities and differences with Mars Science Laboratory and the Curiosity Rover. We will also review the Mars 2020 Scientific Instrument Suite and their goals. Finally, we will review the Return Sample Contamination Control requirements and the design choices that were made to facilitate meeting these requirements.

Soares, Carlos E.↗
NASA NTRS2021

AI4MARS: A Dataset for Terrain-Aware Autonomy on Mars

Deep learning has quickly become a necessity for selfdriving vehicles on Earth. In contrast, the self-driving vehicles on Mars, including NASA’s latest rover, Perseverance, which is planned to land on Mars in February 2021, are still driven by classical machine vision systems. Deep learning capabilities, such as semantic segmentation and object recognition, would substantially benefit the safety and productivity of ongoing and future missions to the red planet. To this end, we created the first large-scale dataset, AI4Mars, for training and validating terrain classification models for Mars, consisting of ~326K semantic segmentation full image labels on 35K images from Curiosity, Opportunity, and Spirit rovers, collected through crowdsourcing. Each image was labeled by ~10 people to ensure greater quality and agreement of the crowdsourced labels. It also includes ~1.5K validation labels annotated by the rover planners and scientists from NASA’s MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) mission, which operates the Curiosity rover, and MER (Mars Exploration Rovers) mission, which operated the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. We trained a DeepLabv3 model on the AI4Mars training dataset and achieved over 96% overall classification accuracy on the test set. The dataset is made publicly available.1

Ono, Hiro↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Mineralogical Discoveries in Gale Crater, Mars from the CheMin XRD Instrument, Demonstrating a Watery Past

Curiosity landed in Gale crater August 2012 and has traversed (~27 km) sedimentary rocks that comprise a ~5 km-high mound, informally known as Mount Sharp, to investigate depositional/diagenetic environments and potential habitability. VSWIR spectra revealed the lowermost slopes of Mount Sharp contain mineral assemblages that are indicative of water-rock interactions (1-3), with sulfate-bearing units overlying phyllosilicate-bearing units. This mineralogical succession may mark the beginning of the transition from a relatively wet/warm to a very dry/cold Mars (e.g., 1, 4). Thirty-four powdered rock samples have been analyzed by the CheMin XRD instrument and mineralogical results from the first 6 years of the mission are reviewed in [5]. Here we describe the mineralogical diversity observed over the most recent 4 years. Sediments in the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) and Glen Torridon (GT) region were deposited in a lacustrine-fluvial environment and are syndepositional. The mineralogy suggests post-depositional fluid-rock interaction. Differences in mineralogy could have been the result of silica-poor, briny groundwater that destabilized smectite and precipitated hematite in VRR [6]. Other hypotheses include lake water-groundwater mixing or diagenesis driven by deeply sourced fluids altering smectite to precipitate hematite and amorphous silica. Preserved bedforms in the clay-sulfate transition region indicate a change from lacustrine-fluvial to aeolian depositional environments. Mineralogical changes include the identification of goethite along with the disappearance of phyllosilicate. The absence of crystalline Mg-sulfate in drilled samples from this transition region may mean that: 1) Sulfates are concentrated in secondary concretions not sampled by Curiosity’s drill, or 2) Sulfate components are either X-ray amorphous or if crystalline, became amorphous in the relatively low-humidity environment of the rover. Continued exploration of sulfate-rich rocks will elucidate this environmental transition above the phyllosilicate-rich sediments.

V M Tu↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Mineralogical Discoveries in Gale Crater, Mars from the CheMin XRD Instrument

Curiosity landed in Gale crater in August 2012 and has traversed ~27 km through sedimentary rocks that comprise the lower slopes of a ~5 km-high mound, informally known as Mount Sharp, to investigate depositional/diagenetic environments and potential habitability. Orbital visible/short-wave infrared spectra revealed some strata on lower Mount Sharp contain mineral assemblages that are indicative of water-rock interactions (1-3), with sulfate-bearing units overlying phyllosilicate-bearing units. This mineralogical succession may mark the beginning of the transition from a relatively wet/warm to a very dry/cold Mars (e.g., 1, 4). Curiosity began studying the strata that show mineralogical signatures from orbit in 2018, with the investigation of Vera Rubin ridge. Here, we describe the mineralogical diversity in these strata using X-ray diffraction data collected by the CheMin instrument. We report on the mineral assemblages from the hematite-rich Vera Rubin ridge, the smectite-rich Glen Torridon region, and the transition from the smectite-bearing rocks to the sulfate-bearing unit. We will present hypotheses explaining the changes in mineralogy throughout the strata, including changes in depositional environment, diagenetic reactions with saline groundwater, and groundwater-lake water interactions (e.g., 5-7).

V. M. Tu↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Decade of Mineralogical Discoveries in Gale Crater, Mars from the CheMin XRD Instrument

Curiosity landed in Gale crater in August 2012 and has traversed ~28 km through sedimentary rocks that comprise the lower slopes of a ~5 km-high mound, informally known as Mount Sharp, to investigate depositional/diagenetic environments and potential habitability. Orbital visible/short-wave infrared spectra revealed some strata on lower Mount Sharp contain mineral assemblages that are indicative of water-rock interactions (1-3), with sulfate-bearing units overlying phyllosilicate-bearing units. This mineralogical succession may mark the beginning of the transition from a relatively wet/warm to a very dry/cold Mars (e.g., 1, 4). Thirty-five powdered rock samples have been analyzed by the CheMin XRD instrument to evaluate mineralogical changes within the stratigraphic section. Curiosity began studying the strata that show mineralogical signatures from orbit in 2018, with the investigation of Vera Rubin ridge. Here, we describe the mineralogical diversity in these strata using X-ray diffraction data collected by the CheMin instrument. We report on the mineral assemblages from: 1) Hematite-rich Vera Rubin ridge; 2) Smectite-rich Glen Torridon region that progresses from tri- to di-octahedral phyllosilicate; 3) Transition unit from smectite to sulfate-bearing rocks with lower layers dominated by Ca-sulfates. We will present hypotheses explaining the changes in mineralogy throughout the strata, including changes in depositional environment, diagenetic reactions with saline groundwater, and groundwater-lake water interactions (e.g., 5-7). Continued exploration of sulfate-rich rocks will elucidate this environmental transition above the phyllosilicate-rich sediments.

V M Tu↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mineralogical Evidence for Environmental Change in the Clay-Sulfate Transition at Gale Crater, Mars

A primary reason for selecting Gale crater as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover landing site was a clear mineralogical transition from Fe/Mg smectite in older strata to hydrated Mg sulfate salts in younger strata observed in orbital visible/shortwave-infrared reflectance data. This transition has been observed in other early-Hesperian terrains on Mars and has been hypothesized to signal a planet-wide change in climate from relatively warm and wet to cold and dry. Curiosity studied the sedimentology and geochemical and mineralogical composition of rocks in this “clay-sulfate transition” region from sols 3052 to 3572 (i.e., March 2021 to August 2022), with arrival at the sulfate unit on sol 3574. Here, we report on the mineralogical measurements made by the CheMin X-ray diffractometer of the six drill targets in the clay-sulfate transition and the first drill target in the sulfate unit. We use compositional data and sedimentological observations to interpret depositional and diagenetic environments and present hypotheses to explain the transition from clay minerals to hydrated Mg sulfates.

E. B. Rampe↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Constraining the Hydration of X-Ray Amorphous and Clay Mineral Phases in Gale Crater, Mars

Clay minerals and salts in the Gale crater stratigraphy investigated by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover preserve information about sediment sources, depositional environment, and post-depositional alteration history. The compositions of amorphous components in samples have bearing on the redox potential, pH, and chemistry of alteration fluids, and on the heterogeneity of these conditions. Interlayer clay hydration in present-day Gale crater could be an indication of high water/rock ratios of late-stage fluid alteration events, which increases the potential habitability of these post-depositional environments. The MSL Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument (DAN) measures bulk hydration and here we attempt to determine the hydration states of both clay minerals and amorphous components throughout the Curiosity traverse to constrain the abundance of individual amorphous phases and determine if clay interlayer water is present today. These implications are also more broadly applicable to similar sedimentary successions outside Gale crater. In this study, we compare hydration results from DAN to mineralogical results from the MSL Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) for 16 different fluvio-lacustrine sample locations. These samples typically contain one or more hydrated crystalline phases, a hydrated X-ray amorphous fraction composed of multiple amorphous phases, and one or more clay mineral phases which CheMin has consistently measured as collapsed (i.e., no interlayer water). However, Gale samples are known to dehydrate during sample acquisition and handling, and because DAN measures hydration to a depth of tens of cm, we can test for the presence of clay interlayer water in situ by comparing DAN bulk hydration to CheMin mineralogy. We can also constrain the hydration of the samples’ amorphous fractions, and with geochemical data from the ChemCam and APXS instruments, this will allow us to better define the phases which compose this fraction.

S Czarnecki↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MastCam Multispectral Examination of Rocks in the Sulfate-Bearing Terrain of Marker Band Valley, Gale Crater, Mars

A primary objective of the 4th extended mission of the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity is to characterize the sulfate-bearing beds exposed on the slopes of Mt. Sharp (Aeolis Mons) above the clay-bearing beds of the Glen Torridon region characterized in the 3rd extended mission. Orbital reflectance spectroscopy from CRISM has indicated the presence of polyhydrated Mg sulfates in the portion of Mt. Sharp dubbed “Marker Band Valley” (MBV). The Marker Band is a darker toned, high-Ca pyroxene bearing unit that extends around much of Mt. Sharp above the first exposures of sulfate-bearing beds. Standoff imaging of the Marker Band indicates that it is not monolithic, but contains at least two subunits. Curiosity measures multispectral reflectance in the 430 to 1012 nm range with its Mastcam. While diagnostic spectral features of Mg-sulfates are not present in the Mastcam spectral range, a water overtone feature of some polyhydrated sulfates can be observed as a drop in reflectance in the longest wavelength one to three bands of Mastcam multispectral data. Other minerals associated with sulfate-generating alteration processes, most notably Fe-bearing minerals, are more readily detectable in Mastcam multispectral data.

W H Farrand↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mars Science Laboratory Mastcam Multispectral Investigation of Drill Targets From the Beginning of the Clay Sulfate Transition to Marker Band Valley

In March, 2021 the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover officially started exploring the Clay Sulfate Transition (CST). This area of Mt. Sharp has been interpreted to have hydrated Mg-sulfate spectral signatures in CRISM orbital data, and it no longer has the strong phyllosilicate spectral signature as the previous Glen Torridon region. Recently, the Curiosity rover has also encountered the marker band that was also identified in orbital data [1,3]. This shift from phyllosilicates to hydrated Mg-sulfates suggests a major change in the environmental conditions during which these rocks were deposited. This abstract focuses on changes seen in the Mastcam multispectral data between the CST drill targets.

S R Jacob↗