The path and key places of the Pahrump Hills outcrop surveyed by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in autumn of 2014. The outcrop is at the base of Mount Sharp within Gale Crater. Photo courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

by Scott Kesselman

The first Martian rock sample drilled by NASA's Curiosity rover at Confidence Hills on Mount Sharp in Sept. was confirmed by the rover's chemistry and mineralogy instrument to match orbital mineral mapping with the presence of hematite.




The target area, first identified as a source of the oxidized iron in 2010 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, contained the highest levels of hematite yet analyzed by the instrument.




"We're now on a path where the orbital data can help us predict what minerals we'll find and make good choices about where to drill," says Ralph Milliken of Brown University and the Curiosity science team. "Analyses like these will help us place rover-scale observations into the broader geologic history of the Gale that we see from orbital data."




The sample is only partially oxidized indicating a gradient of oxidation and providing evidence for a chemical energy source for microbes in Mars’ history.




The rover will continue its mission farther up the ridge of geological layers to an erosion-resistant band with such a strong orbital signature of hematite it is called Hematite Ridge.

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