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Curiosity Scrubs a Mars Rock Clean
astroengine writes "NASA's newest rover on Mars has recently used its Dust Removal Tool for the first time, clearing away a patch of rust-colored dust coating its latest target: a slab of rock called "Ekwir_1." The Dust Removal Tool, or DRT (yes, the rover's cleaning instrument is called "dirt") is a motorized brush with stainless steel wire bristles located on Curiosity's multipurpose Robotic Arm turret — a veritable Swiss Army knife of planetary exploration tools." Reader Sez Zero links to a story on the brushing action at the BBC, which adds that "Curiosity is building towards using its hammer-drill, the last major tool yet to be deployed on the mission."
So at least we know there's dirt on Mars, even if they chose not to send a dedicated life sensor, too. The Aeon piece is well worth reading, if that decision sounds perverse.
The Dust Removal Tool, or DRT (yes, the rover's cleaning instrument is called "dirt")
So what would you rather it be called, smartarse?
"This is my new unlimited power source that actually works. It will cure world hunger, promote world peace, we can use it to fold spacetime so travel anywhere in the Universe can be done safely and it looks like a kitten. I call it Fred."
--
BMO
for curiosity to encounter a cat... oh the headlines.
Why do the articles about "Stuff that Matters" get less comments than pointless crap like the article about a Trillion Dollar coin being banned? I can't wait for more results from Curiosity's progress. It's a shame that people only care about fails these days than successes.
Otherwise its inner monologue might be "Here I am, I just got sent 200 million kilometers, flew down on a really cool rocket, and what do they have me do? Scrub a rock. And with all the pain my diodes down the left side ... I think I'll tell those NASA guys I found bacteria just to confuse 'em for a while, maybe they'll send another probe to chill out with, eh?"
I am officially gone from
Martian Archie Bunker: *peering through his invisibility blinds out his window* "Awww jeez, Edith, look at it now, it's rolled on to our property!"
Martian Edith Bunker: "Relax, Archie, he's probably just lost and looking for directions."
Martian Archie Bunker: "Ohhh no, no he's not. Sheesh those gypsy rovers are taking over out here. Look what happened to Earth, it's practically infected with those things! Oh, what's it doing now? It's polishing one of our yard rocks. Oh geez, oh geez, now it's going to come up to the door and ask for money. I didn't ask him to polish no rocks, he ain't gettin' any of my money!"
Martian Edith Bunker: "Well, maybe just a couple a' bucks, Archie. Look at this one, he's so slow and lonely looking. You know how slow those Earthlings are and they mean well, they really do."
Martian Archie Bunker: "Oh no, not this Martian. No sir. You give one of them a couple of Martian bucks and *BAM* suddenly there's a whole group of 'Thlings with their stupid robots standing outside everyone of our 49 One Twenty One convenience stores tryin' to polish your windshield. I'm not going to be the Martian that starts that invasion, no way."
My work here is dung.
Why do the articles about "Stuff that Matters" get less comments than pointless crap like the article about a Trillion Dollar coin being banned?
Well, I'm not trying to give Slashdot a free pass nor do I think the commentators are the best but to put this into perspective, you should consider these stories. You can have an opinion about the Trillion Dollar coin and you can speak about how you like or don't like and why that is. And it's quite polarizing so it's going to generate a lot of garbage. I think everyone is on board with Curiosity though. It's not polarizing. It's doing things that are far and above what I do in my day to day life so it's really hard for me to make a super intelligent comment about it. Saying how much I love Curiosity just turns into a circle jerk with people one-upping each other about how large their Curiosity tramp stamps are so I remain tacit unless I have something meaningful to add. The Trillion Dollar coin, on the other hand, I was all too eager to call names and engage in ad hominem attacks.
... blah blah blah." So it's hard to generate worthwhile comments here.
Also, there have been countless Curiosity stories and about two Trillion Dollar coin stories. So even if you assume that the population of readers has equal comments about both stories you're going to exhaust the Curiosity comments quickly. I'm not here to say the same thing over and over on multiple stories -- especially when all I can do is sit here with my jaw agape at how awesome this is.
So what exactly did you have in mind? My armchair NASA administrator posts aren't very productive so I read the story and scan the comments for something good. Nobody can chime in with "Well, when I polished rocks on Mars I used an anodized aluminum brush that got better
My work here is dung.
... just a bit more expensive
I hope that we don't found traces of a extinct civilization in a form of steel wire!!
-no sig today-
Free Mars!
You know they spent years and millions redesigning a tool that is found in every Home Depot.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Why does this section of rock appear to have a circle carved into it?
At first I considered that just a side effect of the DRT on soft rock (spinning wire brush = circular abrasions, duh), but if you look at the lower, pre-cleaned picture, you can still see the outline of the same pattern.
All the DRD's are busy....
There are plenty of rocks that need cleaning here on earth!
Thanks for scaring my subconscious with that faint warp field diagram you etched into the stone, Curiosity.
If there is rust, then it found water...
It's no Rosie the Maid but when the Martians get home they won't recognize the place
...and when the Rover's done cleaning that rock it was can go clean the toilets... Pretty soon we'll have Mars all polished up and ready for inspection.
We're ---> --- that much closer to a sex bot! Just some minor adjustments to torque and friction...
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
DRT = DRT Removal Tool
...a NASA wife is complaining her husband sweeps Mars but won't help clean around the house.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
JPL is being cagey about this, but if life or even the biochemical signature of past life was encountered by MSL, the mass spectrometer / gas chromatograph would light up like a Christmas tree.
To me it looks like clay; the Holy Grail of this mission. It would be quite a revelation to find it this early in the missions. The consensus was that clay would not be reached until MSL got to the base of Mt Sharp a year from now...
Curiosity is building towards using its hammer-drill
First Martian Hammer Time!
Well, technically, I did the other arm work for the sol (the MAHLI and APXS placements) so that Joe and Diana could focus on the DRT.
Nothing to add, really, just bragging. :-) Thanks for the continued interest in MSL, Slashdot!
``Life results from the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.'' -- Richard Dawkins