Martian mountain soil sample analysis performed in place!

NASA's Curiosity Mars team has recently obtained a second soil sample from an outcrop of the Murray formation, the geological unit of Mount Sharp on Mars. Through analysis of the soil samples, scientists hope to understand the formation of the mountain and investigate its mineralogical structure. 

The Mars Science Laboratory Project relies on Curiosity to investigate current environmental conditions on Mars, as well as collect and analyze soil samples that will provide information on the environmental conditions prevailing in the past. JPL, division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover used for this mission, which in the past months is on Martian ground. The one-ton roving laboratory, equipped with cameras and spectrometer instruments, has been driven up and down along the Mountain Sharp slope to investigate any features of interest at high levels of detail. Among its goals was to locate suitable spots for drilling samples to be analyzed by the rover's internal instruments. 

Powder collected from the second drilling spot "Mojave 2" indicates the past existence of much more acidic water, compared to the samples collected from the first location. Partial analysis of the sample traced considerable amounts of jarosite, a mineral rich in iron and sulfur that forms in acidic environments. It still remains to be investigated if the more acidic water at "Mojave 2" was found there as a result of environmental processes or after the site was permeated by another fluid at a later point. 

Curiosity's team ultimate goal is to investigate the reasons behind the formation of the Mountain Sharp that has the size of Mount Rainier in Washington. A prevailing theory so far is the gradual sediment deposition after the filling and drying of a series of lakes.