May 9, 2013

Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 dwayne c brown@nasa gov

Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif 818-354-6278 guy webster@jpl nasa gov

RELEASE: 13-136

NASA CURIOSITY ROVER TEAM SELECTS SECOND DRILLING TARGET ON MARS

PASADENA, Calif -- The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Mars has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days

This second drilling target, called "Cumberland," lies about nine feet (2 75 meters) west of the rock where Curiosity's drill first touched Martian stone in February Curiosity took the first rock sample ever collected on Mars from that rock, called "John Klein " The rover found evidence of an ancient environment favorable for microbial life Both rocks are flat, with pale veins and a bumpy surface They are embedded in a layer of rock on the floor of a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay "

This second drilling is intended to confirm results from the first drilling, which indicated the chemistry of the first powdered sample from John Klein was much less oxidizing than that of a soil sample the rover scooped up before it began drilling

"We know there is some cross-contamination from the previous sample each time," said Dawn Sumner, a long-term planner for Curiosity's science team at the University of California at Davis "For the Cumberland sample, we expect to have most of that cross-contamination come from a similar rock, rather than from very different soil "

Although Cumberland and John Klein are very similar, Cumberland appears to have more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps The bumps are concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water soaked the rock long ago Analysis of a sample containing more material from these concretions could provide information about the variability within the rock layer that includes both John Klein and Cumberland

Mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif , recently finished upgrading Curiosity's operating software following a four-week break The rover continued monitoring the Martian atmosphere during the break but the team did not send any new commands because Mars and the sun were positioned in such a way the sun could have blocked or corrupted commands sent from Earth

Curiosity is about nine months into a two-year prime mission since landing inside Gale Crater on Mars After the second rock drilling in Yellowknife Bay and a few other investigations nearby, the rover will drive toward the base of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile (5-kilometer) tall layered mountain inside the crater

JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project, of which Curiosity is the centerpiece, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington

For more information about the mission, visit:

http://www nasa gov/msl

To follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter, visit:

http://www facebook com/marscuriosity

and

http://www twitter com/marscuriosity

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]