Mars may have a lot of orangey dust flying around, but now that a rover has retrieved a sample by drilling a rock there, scientists believe the Red Planet may have another color beneath the surface. The two-ton Mars rover Curiosity, which has been exploring Gale Crater since its miraculous landing on August 6, has become the first robot to drill into a rock to collect a sample on Mars, scientists reported Wednesday. Chemical analyses are still to come, but for now the big news is that the material from the drill appears to be gray. Confirmation came in Wednesday that the sample from the drill made it into Curiosity's scoop, said Scott McCloskey, rover planner and drill systems engineer for Curiosity. Images straight from Mars show the rover's drill was able to acquire about a tablespoon of powder as it was boring down into the rock. The depth of the drill hole is 6.4 centimeters.
From the powder they have evidence that mars used to have water. The water flowing in these rock formations was probably somewhere between ankle and hip deep. Scientists believe the water and sediment flowed down the crater into an alluvial fan, a geological formation created by material that water transports. At least intermittently, this fan appears to have extended down to the area where the rover landed.
Sven Milder
http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/20/mars-rover-drills-sees-planets-true-colors/?hpt=hp_inthenews.
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