Wow. Today's NASA press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory taught me more about how the Mars mission is working than all the research for the numerous Mars diaries I've posted so far. H/t To FishOutOfWater's current rec'ed diary on this breaking news from Mars. Those are terrific images. But there is a lot more to this story.
Here is the complete news conference that NASA conducted this afternoon and the story is a doozey.
Sorry I don't have a transcript. Here is the site the video of the news conference. The briefing came from the NASA Science Panel.
Dr. John Grotzinger spoke about "surprising outcrops." He summarized the findings saying his colleagues will show that this is a rock that was formed in a vigorous flow of water on the surface of Mars. We landed right on top of one of the main things we were looking for with this mission.
Side Note: Interesting to me about Dr. G's remarks was his mention that the mission had moved beyond its examination of the rock Jake Matijevec, which NASA investigated using imaging, x-ray spectroscopy and laser induced spectography. More on that later.
Dr. G also said the team is planning to use windblown sand for the first ChemMin and SAM tests.
Dr. Mike Malin spoke of the mission plan to look for this sort of rock, even though none of our other Mars landers have found it. We were looking for this. He explains how we found it based upon Earth based science. He explains how preparation on similar Earth rocks equipped the science team to interpret the images returned by the lander from Mars. For the 1st time, he discloses that the rover found an example of this kind of rock at Bradbury Landing from material uncovered by the landing rocket blast. Obviously, the science team has been nursing its observations on this along for many weeks, but waited until they fell the evidence was unassailable before holding today's historic news conference.
Mike Malin said that they were looking for this kind of rock and explained how it compared to Earth based observations they had made using the same imaging systems. He explains how that Earth based preparation on similar rocks equipped the science team to interpret these images from Mars. For the 1st time, he discloses that the rover found an example of this kind of rock at Bradbury Landing from material uncovered by the landing rocket blast.
Rebecca Williams confirms that the rover found outcrops of similar rock along the way before happening upon an example that was particularly well situated for investigation by the imaging systems. These observations have been going on for weeks, now.
The observations conclusively confirm the existence of an ancient "sediment transport process" on Mars, moving sediments "too large to be transported by wind" and described as "water transported gravels in a vigorous stream". Williams called this "ground truth confirmation of water transported material predicted by orbital images"
This rock was not formed in a day or year or century. The conditions laying down these sediments and wearing larger, jagged rocks into small round pebbles continued for thousands of years or perhaps much longer. There was a watershed, pouring out of the highlands that created this areology, billions of years ago, that laid down these deposits. It poured out of the mouth of a canyon 100 feet deep, 2000 feet wide and extending many miles up into the highlands. It broke into lesser streams that criss-crossed a vast alluvial plain that formed at the mouth of the canyon.
Later time covered the sediments and compressed them into aggregate stone. Later again, time re-exposed the sedimentary rock which was then shattered and uplifted, probably by meteor impacts, so that this fabulous team of science heroes could examine the rock and tell us about it.
Imagine it. It either rained or snowed on those highlands. Perhaps there were glaciers some of the time. Over thousands, maybe millions of years, the run-off wore a canyon of tremendous size down the face of the mountain and discharged the rock torn away in the process into the alluvial fan below. Imagine how different Mars must have been those billions of years ago.
I have argued in my Mars diaries that the Mars mission has the capacity to produce results spectacular enough to amount to an October surprise favoring Democrats, because we aren't the party that hates government and science. NASA Mars discoveries so far could easily lead to even more amazing results and the timing is already set for mid-October. NASA admits they were looking for the aggregate rock announced today. What else is NASA looking for that might ignite the popular mind?
Back to the rock named Jake. A big lesson from today's press conference is the insight that this science team will announce no finding before its time. They have been looking at and debating what they think about outcrops of this aggregate rock since the mission first touched down at Bradbury landing, but today was the first we've heard about it. This suggests to me that the findings from the science done on Jake is still under review. That further suggests to me that the outcome might be more, rather than less interesting. I wasn't expecting to find out anything spectacular, but the delay makes me wonder.
I've posted a guide to my previous Mars diaries out in the tall grass for ease of reference.
Here are my previous diaries in this series inspired by NASA's new roving science lab on Mars, listed in the order I have posted them.
Mars Curiosity Rover -- Meet the ChemCam
Ray Bradbury is Honored Today on Mars
What Curiosity Can Do, Part 2.
What Curiosity Can Do on Mars and in this Election
Will Curiosity Mission Finally Vindicate the Life Science Results from the 1976 Viking Lander?
From Mars: SAM Takes a Deep Breath and Flexes his Arm
From Mars: Here's Looking At You, Kid.
On Mars: Super Rover has X-ray Vision
On Mars: Let the Science Begin
On Mars: We have found an Interesting Rock
On Mars: Obama and Biden Campaign This Week
On Mars: Curiosity Does Contact Science
