I’ve been with this project with the
rover since 2004 when we proposed the
cameras that take all these beautiful
color images and but my own story goes
back to reading National Geographic in
the early 1970s and the coverage of the
Mariner missions and the Voyager and
Apollo so it’s kind of trippy to be
standing here right now this is a
landscape mount sharp you see to the
upper-left rising out of the scene in
that direction in the other direction
you don’t actually see it here but we
will see it you will see the wall of
Gale off further in the distance Mount
sharp is three miles high of layered
sediment the kinds of outcrops of rock
that we’ve been looking at since we
landed are more like ankle and knee high
and some of them are down underfoot like
the mud stone that we drilled by the way
two years ago when we landed if you said
the first thing we drill is going to be
a mud stone and that we would find that
it was actually a habitable environment
I wouldn’t have believed you so this has
been an amazing two years
you see curiosity’s carries its name on
its arm it carries its name on its
sleeve and what we are doing we are
geologists for the most part and what we
are doing is trying to read the history
of this place in the layered Rock we
call it stratigraphy but basically the
oldest rocks are at the bottom of a
stack and the youngest are at the top
and so if you go like to the Grand
Canyon in Arizona for example or
Letchworth
I’ve been there many times older younger
so what you see here behind me is one of
these landscapes in a place called dingo
gap this was just a few months ago in
the far distance you actually see the
north wall of Gale Crater so we’re
trying to look at these rocks with the
rover and try to understand the history
that they’re telling us about this place
here’s another place we called this one
Schaller and
this is layered rocks laid down by
moving water in a stream all of that
orange brown stuff you see that’s the
dust the rocks is the dark grey stuff
everything we’ve seen in Gale has been
sedimentary rock and it’s been various
shades of gray here’s another landscape
again in the direction we are driving
here you can actually see the wall of
Gale off in the far distance and you see
a little bit of Mount sharp off in this
corner up here in front of us right in
the foreground is a little drift of sand
windblown sand what we’ve been dealing
with here is a very very thin veneer of
windblown sand windblown dust and all
those little pebbles and cobbles you see
that’s just the detritus as this rock
breaks down and then wind carries it
away this is a story of we are right
there by the bedrock it is right under
our feet we can drive up to it we can
read this history but we do have to deal
with this veneer of dust and sand and
and pebbles here and there wind erosion
is a big deal in Gale in allowing us to
do our jobs and if you look in the sort
of the bottom middle of this picture
you’ll see a little pebble and behind it
is a protrusion going back under the
sand into the rock outcrop or into the
rock face a little pebble and then this
protrusion that pebble protected all
that rock behind it as wind blew sand
and eroded that rock back except where
that pebble was that’s like one of my
favorite pictures from this mission now
here’s a close-up like I said
sedimentary rock this is bits of old
rock so think about the history here
there was rock on Mars that rock broke
apart made sand and pebbles and cobbles
and dust and then that stuff was
transported by wind or water and
deposited in Gale and then later it
becomes rock okay so sediment then
becomes rock and then even later the
wind is eroding that leaving like that
protrusion with the pebble okay this is
a picture of one of the conglomerates
that we saw and this is a close-up and
you see a
penny for scale so you get some idea
these are actually very small pebbles
you know about the size of Lincoln’s
head that penny is also on Mars but not
actually in this photo I photoshopped
that in to give you a sense of scale but
that the rover carries that penny with
it and I love to use it you know for
scale because we’re all familiar with
that
that was a conglomerate now I’m going to
go to a finer grained sediment this is a
sandstone okay and what you’re looking
at is the sand is both the very dark
grey mass that you see everywhere you
can’t actually see the individual grains
because they’re actually smaller than
the camera was resolving here and then
you see little protrusions which are
larger sand grains set in that finer
sand those protrusions are there because
of wind erosion those are resisting the
blasting by the sand so they stick out
but then at the bottom you see a void
you see out-of-focus dirt in the
background because this is a layer
that’s forming a shelf and overhang and
the layer beneath it retreated back out
of view you can’t see it now everything
you see in this picture that it looks
kind of brownish or reddish is just dust
sitting on the rock this rock is dark
grey next slide shows the finest grained
sedimentary rock we’ve seen which is
this mud stone and the penny here is for
scale again and you see an area that the
rover brushed it has a little wire brush
we don’t use it often but when we do it
does a good job now let’s look at that
close-up okay the camera on the arm can
get right down literally within an inch
or so and we can take these close-up
views here now you actually see grooves
cut into the rock by the brush so this
rock is not really really hard it
actually can get little grooves from the
wire as the wire brush as it moves and
you see some of the dust that’s sort of
generated as it swirls that up but when
we look at the rock itself ignore the
dust ignore the grooves
we find that the grains are too small to
see with this Cameron this is one of the
highest resolution images ever taken
outside of a microscope
you know on board the Phoenix lander
this is the one that hides right down
there with this camera and we can’t see
the grain so they are very very fine
grains so let me talk briefly about some
of the other tools you’ve seen a lot of
pictures you get a sense that we can do
a lot with pictures we but we also want
to know about the chemistry of the rocks
and the minerals that make up the rocks
this is the arm is that white thing
sticking down and then the turret and in
the shadow underneath there you see a
little box called the apxs that is a
science instrument that is using x-rays
and it is measuring the chemistry of the
rock there
so that is one of our tools here now is
another brush spot this was just at the
end of April this was a sandstone and
remember the penny in the brush spot so
it’s like three or four five pennies
across but you see an array of dots
going through that those were formed by
a laser beam zapping the rock at each
one of those spots multiple times at
each spot okay and then the instrument
observes the light that comes off of
that as it zaps it and it can tell you
something about the chemistry of the
rock that way later in May we actually
drilled this rock but here’s our very
first drill hole the diameter is 16
millimeters one six millimeters I don’t
know what’s a millimeter well a
Roosevelt dime a u.s. dime is 17
millimeters so there’s one millimeter
smaller than a dime this is the stuff
that if you told me this was going to be
the first thing we drilled you know
before we landed I didn’t even know that
we’d land right it you see that the gray
mud stone there you also see this white
lightning bolt that is a there was a
crack in that rock at some point in its
history and minerals filled that sulfur
and calcium bearing minerals filled that
vein getting a picture like this allows
us to get a sense of what did we
actually drill through then that sample
is put into instruments that are inside
the rover’s body want to find out what
the minerals are and want to find out
what the chemistry is I just want to
leave
you with this because this is why we do
this it’s really for understanding our
home and so what you’re seeing is the
rim of Gale after sunset and then
there’s a bright dot in the sky that’s
earth and if you look at the little
blow-up you actually see there’s two
dots the bright one is Earth the fainter
one is the moon you can see these from
Mars and we study this stuff to
understand our home planet just as much
as to because of our curiosity thank you
you
you
rover since 2004 when we proposed the
cameras that take all these beautiful
color images and but my own story goes
back to reading National Geographic in
the early 1970s and the coverage of the
Mariner missions and the Voyager and
Apollo so it’s kind of trippy to be
standing here right now this is a
landscape mount sharp you see to the
upper-left rising out of the scene in
that direction in the other direction
you don’t actually see it here but we
will see it you will see the wall of
Gale off further in the distance Mount
sharp is three miles high of layered
sediment the kinds of outcrops of rock
that we’ve been looking at since we
landed are more like ankle and knee high
and some of them are down underfoot like
the mud stone that we drilled by the way
two years ago when we landed if you said
the first thing we drill is going to be
a mud stone and that we would find that
it was actually a habitable environment
I wouldn’t have believed you so this has
been an amazing two years
you see curiosity’s carries its name on
its arm it carries its name on its
sleeve and what we are doing we are
geologists for the most part and what we
are doing is trying to read the history
of this place in the layered Rock we
call it stratigraphy but basically the
oldest rocks are at the bottom of a
stack and the youngest are at the top
and so if you go like to the Grand
Canyon in Arizona for example or
Letchworth
I’ve been there many times older younger
so what you see here behind me is one of
these landscapes in a place called dingo
gap this was just a few months ago in
the far distance you actually see the
north wall of Gale Crater so we’re
trying to look at these rocks with the
rover and try to understand the history
that they’re telling us about this place
here’s another place we called this one
Schaller and
this is layered rocks laid down by
moving water in a stream all of that
orange brown stuff you see that’s the
dust the rocks is the dark grey stuff
everything we’ve seen in Gale has been
sedimentary rock and it’s been various
shades of gray here’s another landscape
again in the direction we are driving
here you can actually see the wall of
Gale off in the far distance and you see
a little bit of Mount sharp off in this
corner up here in front of us right in
the foreground is a little drift of sand
windblown sand what we’ve been dealing
with here is a very very thin veneer of
windblown sand windblown dust and all
those little pebbles and cobbles you see
that’s just the detritus as this rock
breaks down and then wind carries it
away this is a story of we are right
there by the bedrock it is right under
our feet we can drive up to it we can
read this history but we do have to deal
with this veneer of dust and sand and
and pebbles here and there wind erosion
is a big deal in Gale in allowing us to
do our jobs and if you look in the sort
of the bottom middle of this picture
you’ll see a little pebble and behind it
is a protrusion going back under the
sand into the rock outcrop or into the
rock face a little pebble and then this
protrusion that pebble protected all
that rock behind it as wind blew sand
and eroded that rock back except where
that pebble was that’s like one of my
favorite pictures from this mission now
here’s a close-up like I said
sedimentary rock this is bits of old
rock so think about the history here
there was rock on Mars that rock broke
apart made sand and pebbles and cobbles
and dust and then that stuff was
transported by wind or water and
deposited in Gale and then later it
becomes rock okay so sediment then
becomes rock and then even later the
wind is eroding that leaving like that
protrusion with the pebble okay this is
a picture of one of the conglomerates
that we saw and this is a close-up and
you see a
penny for scale so you get some idea
these are actually very small pebbles
you know about the size of Lincoln’s
head that penny is also on Mars but not
actually in this photo I photoshopped
that in to give you a sense of scale but
that the rover carries that penny with
it and I love to use it you know for
scale because we’re all familiar with
that
that was a conglomerate now I’m going to
go to a finer grained sediment this is a
sandstone okay and what you’re looking
at is the sand is both the very dark
grey mass that you see everywhere you
can’t actually see the individual grains
because they’re actually smaller than
the camera was resolving here and then
you see little protrusions which are
larger sand grains set in that finer
sand those protrusions are there because
of wind erosion those are resisting the
blasting by the sand so they stick out
but then at the bottom you see a void
you see out-of-focus dirt in the
background because this is a layer
that’s forming a shelf and overhang and
the layer beneath it retreated back out
of view you can’t see it now everything
you see in this picture that it looks
kind of brownish or reddish is just dust
sitting on the rock this rock is dark
grey next slide shows the finest grained
sedimentary rock we’ve seen which is
this mud stone and the penny here is for
scale again and you see an area that the
rover brushed it has a little wire brush
we don’t use it often but when we do it
does a good job now let’s look at that
close-up okay the camera on the arm can
get right down literally within an inch
or so and we can take these close-up
views here now you actually see grooves
cut into the rock by the brush so this
rock is not really really hard it
actually can get little grooves from the
wire as the wire brush as it moves and
you see some of the dust that’s sort of
generated as it swirls that up but when
we look at the rock itself ignore the
dust ignore the grooves
we find that the grains are too small to
see with this Cameron this is one of the
highest resolution images ever taken
outside of a microscope
you know on board the Phoenix lander
this is the one that hides right down
there with this camera and we can’t see
the grain so they are very very fine
grains so let me talk briefly about some
of the other tools you’ve seen a lot of
pictures you get a sense that we can do
a lot with pictures we but we also want
to know about the chemistry of the rocks
and the minerals that make up the rocks
this is the arm is that white thing
sticking down and then the turret and in
the shadow underneath there you see a
little box called the apxs that is a
science instrument that is using x-rays
and it is measuring the chemistry of the
rock there
so that is one of our tools here now is
another brush spot this was just at the
end of April this was a sandstone and
remember the penny in the brush spot so
it’s like three or four five pennies
across but you see an array of dots
going through that those were formed by
a laser beam zapping the rock at each
one of those spots multiple times at
each spot okay and then the instrument
observes the light that comes off of
that as it zaps it and it can tell you
something about the chemistry of the
rock that way later in May we actually
drilled this rock but here’s our very
first drill hole the diameter is 16
millimeters one six millimeters I don’t
know what’s a millimeter well a
Roosevelt dime a u.s. dime is 17
millimeters so there’s one millimeter
smaller than a dime this is the stuff
that if you told me this was going to be
the first thing we drilled you know
before we landed I didn’t even know that
we’d land right it you see that the gray
mud stone there you also see this white
lightning bolt that is a there was a
crack in that rock at some point in its
history and minerals filled that sulfur
and calcium bearing minerals filled that
vein getting a picture like this allows
us to get a sense of what did we
actually drill through then that sample
is put into instruments that are inside
the rover’s body want to find out what
the minerals are and want to find out
what the chemistry is I just want to
leave
you with this because this is why we do
this it’s really for understanding our
home and so what you’re seeing is the
rim of Gale after sunset and then
there’s a bright dot in the sky that’s
earth and if you look at the little
blow-up you actually see there’s two
dots the bright one is Earth the fainter
one is the moon you can see these from
Mars and we study this stuff to
understand our home planet just as much
as to because of our curiosity thank you
you
you
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