Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Curiosity's celebratory Marsiversary selfie. Image: NASA
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Most notably, this sample is unexpectedly rich in orthoclase, a potassium-rich feldspar that is among the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust, but has never been definitively found on Mars. This suggests this area of Mars has gone through complex geological processing, something like multiple episodes of melting."It's too early for conclusions, but we expect the results to help us connect what we learned at Yellowknife Bay to what we'll learn at Mount Sharp," said John Grotzinger, a Curiosity project scientist at the California Institute of Technology. "Windjana is still within an area where a river flowed. We see signs of a complex history of interaction between water and rock.”The first Mars-year has also led to some hardware issues, namely wheel damage from some unexpectedly hard rocks. This has slowed the rover’s process slightly and forced a change in route to the base of Mount Sharp, which has been Curiosity’s target all along. Scientists suspect the base of this mountain inside a crater will have exposed geological layering that will answer questions about Mars’ ancient environment.Because Curiosity reached its main goal so early after landing, the bar has been raised for the next phase of the mission. Now the question at Mount Sharp won’t just be whether ancient Mars could have supported life, but also how the Martian environment evolved and what conditions have preserved the traces that might tell us whether life ever existed on the red planet’s surface.Curiosity is currently a little less than 2.5 miles from reaching Mount Sharp. It will get there in the coming months by crossing some sandy patches and some rockier ground, hopefully limiting further wheel damage. "We are getting in some long drives using what we have learned," said Jim Erickson, the Curiosity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "When you're exploring another planet, you expect surprises. The sharp, embedded rocks were a bad surprise. Yellowknife Bay was a good surprise.”This first Marsversary also marks the end of Curiosity’s primary mission, but the rover obviously isn’t stopping anytime soon. And if this first Mars-year is any indication, we should see a some pretty incredible things during Curiosity’s second year on Mars.