Curiosity update: ‘What’s growing in Garden City?’

Sol 932-934, March 20, 2015, update from USGS scientist Lauren Edgar: While many of us in the northern hemisphere are celebrating the first day of spring, Curiosity is busy tending to her “Garden City.” Sadly there are no flowers in sight, but the outcrop contains some beautiful veins.  This MAHLI image from Sol 930 shows some of the complex relationships that we’re trying to sort out.  I’ve been the Geology Science Theme Lead this week and Ken Herkenhoff has been the SOWG Chair and MAHLI PUL, so the team here at the USGS has been very involved in planning contact science at this location. Today we’re planning 3 sols, during which Curiosity will acquire MAHLI and APXS on both the dark and light portions of these veins to better understand their texture and composition. [More at link]