NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2017 May 04
[c][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3qr9AqZyEI[/youtube]Curiosity at Ogunquit Beach (360 View)As it drives uphill from a band of rippled sand dunes, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is toting a fistful of dark sand for onboard analysis that will complete the rover's investigation of those dunes.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS[/c][hr][/hr]
From early February to early April, the rover examined four sites near a linear dune for comparison with what it found in late 2015 and early 2016 during its investigation of crescent-shaped dunes. This two-phase campaign is the first close-up study of active dunes anywhere other than Earth.
Among the questions this Martian dune campaign is addressing is how winds shape dunes that are relatively close together, on the same side of the same mountain, into different patterns. Others include whether Martian winds sort grains of sand in ways that affect the distribution of mineral compositions, which would have implications for studies of Martian sandstones. ...