The Present Habitability Potential of Gale Crater: What We Have Learned So Far From Mars Science Laboratory

The Mars Science Laboratory mission has comprehensively interrogated the surface environment of Mars as it explores Gale Crater. Both chemical and physical attributes of the present environment have been measured over the course of the mission, enabling us to compare the present state of the martian surface with the environmental requirements of prokaryotic microbes. While this approach does not exclude the possibility of martian life that may have evolved to adapt to the present conditions, it is advantageous in that it allows us to evaluate environmental requirements of known life and also provide insight into the likelihood of forward contamination by Earth organisms with the comparison of their environmental requirements with the measured attributes of the environment at Gale Crater. We have already modeled a paleoenvironment with high habitability potential (HP) based upon chemistry, mineralogy and other geological evidence such as sedimentary structures and larger scale geomorphology [1]. In this report, we turn our attention to the present HP of the Yellowknife Bay area, including the importance of the physical environmental metrics such as atmospheric pressure, air and ground temperature, ionizing radiation, wind speed and direction, slope, etc

Mineralogy and Elemental Composition of Wind Drift Soil at Rocknest, Gale Crater

The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has been exploring Mars since August 5, 2012, conducting engineering and first-time activities with its mobility system, arm, sample acquisition and processing system (SA/SPaH-CHIMRA) and science instruments. Curiosity spent 54 sols at a location named "Rocknest," collecting and processing five scoops of loose, unconsolidated materials ("soil") acquired from an aeolian bedform (Fig. 1). The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument analyzed portions of scoops 3, 4, and 5, to obtain the first quantitative mineralogical analysis of Mars soil, and to provide context for Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) measurements of volatiles, isotopes and possible organic materials

Geochemical diversity and K-rich compositions found by the MSL APXS in Gale Crater, Mars

Along the Curiosity rover’s traverse toward Glenelg (through sol 102) the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) analysed four rocks and one soil. Microscopic images and compositions of unbrushed rock surfaces are consistent with 5-20% dust contamination. Nevertheless, the underlying characteristics of these rocks may still be discerned. As a group, they span nearly the entire range in FeO^* and MnO of the Martian dataset. In addition, they are particularly enriched in volatile metals (K, Zn, Ge), and these elements do not correlate with Cl or S. One rock, Jake_Matijevic is notably alkaline and evolved; its composition is that of a nepheline normative mugearite. The other three rocks plot in the basanite field of a TAS diagram, with high K_2O (up to 3.0%) and low SiO_2. These three rocks are otherwise SNC-like (high Fe and low Al). Three out of the four rocks (including Jake_Matijevic) plot along a line in variation diagrams, suggesting mixing of Fe-rich and Al-rich components, likely by sedimentary processes. With only four rocks analyzed so far and ambiguity as to their geologic context (e.g. outcrop vs. float; igneous vs. sedimentary) additional measurements are needed to fully understand the region. It is nevertheless clear that Curiosity landed in a lithologically diverse, K-rich region of Mars