Thematic Articles

The science investigations enabled by Curiosity rover’s instruments focus on identifying and exploring the habitability of the Martian environment. Measurements of noble gases, organic and inorganic compounds, and the isotopes of light elements permit the study of the physical and chemical processes that have transformed Mars throughout its history. Samples of the atmosphere, volatiles released from soils, and rocks from the floor of Gale Crater have provided a wealth of new data and a window into conditions on ancient Mars.

The rover Curiosity is conducting X-ray diffraction experiments on the surface of Mars using the CheMin instrument. The analyses enable identification of the major and minor minerals, providing insight into the conditions under which the samples were formed or altered and, in turn, into past habitable environments on Mars. The CheMin instrument was developed over a twenty-year period, mainly through the efforts of scientists and engineers from NASA and DOE. Results from the first four experiments, at the Rocknest, John Klein, Cumberland, and Windjana sites, have been received and interpreted. The observed mineral assemblages are consistent with an environment hospitable to Earth-like life, if it existed on Mars.

The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) is a soda can–sized, arm-mounted instrument that measures the chemical composition of rocks and soils using X-ray spectroscopy. It has been part of the science payload of the four rovers that NASA has landed on Mars. It uses 244Cm sources for a combination of PIXE and XRF to quantify 16 elements. So far, about 700 Martian samples from about 50 km of combined traverses at the four landing sites have been documented. The compositions encountered range from unaltered basaltic rocks and extensive salty sandstones to nearly pure hydrated ferric sulfates and silica-rich subsurface soils. The APXS is used for geochemical reconnaissance, identification of rock and soil types, and sample triage. It provides crucial constraints for use with the mineralogical instruments. The APXS data set allows the four landing sites to be compared with each other and with Martian meteorites, and it provides ground truth measurements for comparison with orbital observations.

The ChemCam laser-induced breakdown spectrometer on the rover Curiosity has provided more than 200,000 spectra from over 5000 different locations on Mars. This instrument is the first chemical microprobe on Mars and has an analytical footprint 0.3–0.6 mm in diameter. ChemCam has observed a measure of hydration in all the sedimentary materials encountered along the rover traverse in Gale Crater, indicating the ubiquity of phyllosilicates as a constituent of the analyzed sandstones, mudstones, and conglomerates. Diagenetic features, including calcium sulfate veins, millimeter-thick magnesium-rich diagenetic ridges, and manganese-rich rock surfaces, provide clues to water–rock interactions. Float clasts of coarsegrained igneous rocks are rich in alkali feldspars and some are enriched in fluorine, indicating greater magmatic evolution than expected on Mars. The identification of individual soil components has contributed to our understanding of the evolution of Martian soil. These observations have broadened our understanding of Mars as an active and once habitable planet.

The surface of Mars has been sculpted by flowing water and shaped by wind. During the first two years of its exploration of Gale Crater, the Mars Science Laboratory mission’s Curiosity rover has recorded abundant geologic evidence that water once existed on Mars both within the subsurface and, as least episodically, flowed on the land surface. And now, as Curiosity presses onward toward Mount Sharp, the complexity of the Martian surface is becoming increasingly apparent. In this paper, we review the nature of the surface materials and their stories, as seen through the eyes of Curiosity.

Landed missions to the surface of Mars have long sought to determine the material properties of rocks and soils encountered during the course of surface exploration. Increasingly, emphasis is placed on the study of materials formed or altered in the presence of liquid water. Placed in the context of their geological environment, these materials are then used to help evaluate ancient habitability. The Mars Science Laboratory mission—with its Curiosity rover—seeks to establish the availability of elements that may have fueled microbial metabolism, including carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, and a host of others at the trace element level. These measurements are most valuable when placed in a geological framework of ancient environments as interpreted from mapping, combined with an understanding of the petrogenesis of the igneous rocks and derived sedimentary materials. In turn, the analysis of solid materials and the reconstruction of ancient environments provide the basis to assess past habitability.