Curiosity is one of only two operating vehicles on all of Mars, half a world away from Jezero crater. So it was a bit unsettling when Perseverance pulled up to a slab of rock after a recent drive and observed freshly made scrape marks.
I’m not often surprised anymore by whitish or light-toned materials near a rover since Spirit uncovered all that whitish silica with its dragging dead front wheel, all those years ago. It seems we often find that Mars is red only until you literally scratch the surface.
I have to say that Percy often drives right past plenty of rocks I’d like to investigate more. I know that Ken Farley et al. are doing just that with remote sensing (the results of which we aren’t privy to for quite a while), so they have some idea of what they’re looking at, but I’m often tantalized by a lot of this stuff.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the meetings between the science teams on which rocks to investigate. There must be disagreements between the scientists :) I guess we would have only travelled a few hundred meters if they stopped at every rock / target that looked interesting to one of the team, instead of the 32.51 km (20.20 miles) we have traversed. As for the colour, I like to look at the colour of the tailings when they drill holes, there are many gray rocks, but quite a few reddish ones as well. This illustrates it well for me (all 42 sample holes) https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA26403.jpg
You’re talking sense, Paul. As you say, opinions certainly differ, especially among people of different scientific disciplines (e.g. meterology vs. geology), and that even extends to the mission PIs. Steve Squyres was certainly driven and focused in achieving his science goals, which meant that the MER missions drove hard as well. John Grotzinger was criticized for not connecting the dots and “lacking focus” on a big flagship rover. From everything I’ve seen and heard, Ken Farley is being more careful in balancing priorities (and I’d say his job is a lot harder here, considering the needs of sample return!) All that being said, even pure geologists will certainly disagree amongst themselves, though we don’t see that here as interested members of the public.
I’m not privy to the inner workings on this project by any means - certainly not directly. Having observed prior missions from a somewhat closer perspective, however, I see Mars 2020 as very, very driven by the work of other missions and a surprisingly broad community. Orbital spectroscopy and geologic mapping has guided this rover in detail from the very start, to a degree greater than I remember even for MSL, and I’m not aware of much debate about the rover’s planned route at any point since before landing. I was personally quite surprised by the short amount of time that Percy spent in Neretva Vallis (amazing place!), to say nothing of acquiring only one sample. Yes, there aren’t many spots as interesting as Bright Angel along the traverse path, but I still don’t agree that one sample was enough, and I somehow doubt that I’m alone in that opinion.
I expect a future book or two when the MSL and 2020 surface operations eventually come to a close. Knowing some of the players I don’t feel they would be overtly controversial. but one may have to read a little between the lines :) Sadly I’m already as old as dirt, so I won’t be seeing them on my coffee table before they nail my pine lid down. As for Neretva Vallis, you are not alone, it seemed more than a little odd that only one sample was taken. I know they have limited tubes left, but it sure feels like a missed opportunity…
While I’m being chatty, I’d like to ask you if you have any suggestions re: contributions to this community or instance or whatever we call it. I often see things in the raw images that I feel like pointing out here. In reading social media since this mission started, though, I see vast knowledge gaps in people’s understanding of basic geology (or “earth sciences”, if we can use that term for Mars - maybe “environmental sciences” is a better term), and I sometimes feel I should try to shine a light in those gaps. I’ve thought about breaking down some of the big science papers/results from this mission here, but I wanted to ask you about this first, as I think you have a better feel than I for what people might be interested in actually reading.
I’m sure there are a lot of folk that would appreciate and be very interested in any contributions you make, where you could shine a light on the many gaps there are in their understanding. It’s probably not something you can measure in counting lots of upvotes on particular, but I’m pretty sure there is an audience out there for you… Go for it whenever you see feature in any of the raw images or breaking down the results of a paper…
