Curiosity heads off to Mars

On Saturday 26th November the Mars Science Laboratory mission launched safely from Florida. It should land on Mars in early August next year, ready for the amazingly well-equipped Curiosity rover vehicle to start its exploration of Gale Crater.  The aim of the mission is to search for signs that conditions  might once have been favourable for life, by looking for evidence in the sedimentary rocks found in the crater.  Geomorphology will play an important part of this mission, and geomorphologists will also learn a lot from it.  Already there are many links between planetary science and terrestrial geomorphology. For example, much of our understanding of the surface conditions on Mars comes from looking at what the Americans call 'analog' environments - i.e. places on Earth that are similar to places on Mars, such as Antarctica and hyper-arid deserts such as the Atacama and the Namib deserts.

HiRise image of barchan dunes on Mars

Also, as the above image shows we can now see an amazing range of landforms on Mars which are leading geomorphologists to ask all sorts of questions about how they are formed.

The IAG Planetary Geomorphology Working Group posts monthly images with accompanying  explanations most of which deal with some aspects of comparisons between landforms and processes on Earth and Mars.  Check out the collection at the following address - especially the one from December 2010 on rock breakdown on Earth and Mars which I put together.

http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/index.html

Geomorphologists on Earth are highly envious of the equipment that the Mars Science Lab mission has on-board the Curiosity Rover.  Have a look at the NASA factsheet (link below) to find out all the information about the physical and chemical make-up of the rocks that Curiosity will be able to glean in the field.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-laboratory.pdf

Fingers crossed, if all goes to plan, Curiosity and the Mars Science Lab mission should start sending back some new and intriguing data next summer, which will not only throw further light on its geological, geomorphological and possibly biological history.