News from NASA's Curiosity rover, currently traveling across the surface of Mars, often comes out piecemeal. We learn what the probe did on one particular day but rarely how that fits in with our larger understanding of the Red Planet and its history.
Today, the scientists working with Curiosity offer a trove of detailed analysis. The have simultaneously published five papers in Science as well as an additional article in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets that incorporate everything the rover learned in its first months working at Gale crater.
"These papers, in a nutshell, present our summary of using the Curiosity laboratory for the first time on Mars," said geologist John Grotzinger, the project scientist for the mission.
The findings offer a look at the soil, composition, mineralogy, and history of an area known as Rocknest, which Curiosity visited in October and November 2012. While there, the rover got to try out many of its instruments for the first time during a battery of testing. It shot the Martian surface with lasers, X-rays, charged particles, and even took taking five scoops from the surface to heat in its internal oven.
Here, we'll take a look at the details the science team has provided in their glut of new papers. Much of this information will come in handy as Curiosity roves on to the base of Mount Sharp, its eventual target. The data will give context and insight into the next things the probe will find and could help unravel the complex history of water and its disappearance from Mars.