accelerometers tagged posts

Mars Rover Curiosity makes 1st Gravity-Measuring Traverse on the Red Planet

In a selfie taken in mid-January 2019, Mars rover Curiosity prepares to enter a new, clay-mineral-rich unit on its traverse up Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Mission scientists are anxious to see what a new gravity-measuring technique will reveal about the mountain and Gale Crater’s history.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A clever use of non-science engineering data from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has let a team of researchers, including an Arizona State University graduate student, measure the density of rock layers in 96-mile-wide Gale Crater. The findings, to be published February 1, 2019, in the journal Science, show that the layers are more porous than scientists had suspected...

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