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| Self Portrait of Curiosity at the 'John Klein' drilling site Gale Crater- Mars |
Toot and I continue to suffer from computer glitches but NASA engineers have got Curiosity out of safe-mode and back into scientific harness.
Results from the chemical analysis of powder ground from one drill core have been published on NASA's website.
On February 8th Curiosity drilled two rock cores in veined bedrock located in an area of Gale Crater named 'Yellowknife Bay'.
NASA scientists believe that long ago 'Yellowknife Bay', was at the end of a river system or was an intermittently wet and dry lake bed. The rock is a fine grained mud-stone rich in sulphate containing minerals. In contrast to findings made elsewhere on Mars, this ancient wet environment was not harshly oxidizing, acidic or salty.
Chemical analysis of the rock core sample detected the presence of sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon. These elements are some of the key ingredients of life.
"A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-092#5
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