NASA'S Curiosity rover
is about to have its cake and eat it too. Around September, the rover
should get its first taste of layered sediments at Aeolis Mons, a
mountain over 5 kilometres tall that may hold preserved signs of life on
Mars.
Previous rovers uncovered ample
evidence of ancient water, a key ingredient for life as we know it. With
its sophisticated on-board chemistry lab, Curiosity is hunting for more
robust signs of habitability, including organic compounds - the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it.
Observations from orbit show that the
layers in Aeolis Mons - also called Mount Sharp - contain minerals
thought to have formed in the presence of water. That fits with theories
that the rover's landing site, Gale crater, was once a large lake. Even
better, the layers were probably laid down quickly enough that the
rocks could have held on to traces of microorganisms, if they existed
there.
If the search for organics turns up empty, Aeolis Mons may hold other clues to habitability, says project scientist John Grotzinger
of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The layers will
reveal which minerals and chemical processes were present in Mars's
past. "We're going to find all kinds of good stuff down there, I'm
sure," he says.
Curiosity will explore a region called
Glenelg until early February, and then hit the gas. The base of the
mountain is 10 kilometres away, and the rover can drive at about 100
metres a day at full speed. The journey should take between six and nine
months, but will include stops to check out any interesting landmarks.
After all, some of the most exciting discoveries from Mars rovers were a
result of serendipity.
"It's a discovery-driven mission,"
Grotzinger says. "We picked this site because we wanted to go to Mount
Sharp. But we'll kind of follow our nose, and see where it leads us off
on side trails."
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