"Curiosity Stops to Thwack Its Instruments, Take Amazing..." Topic

… Panoramas.

"On the road of life, it's sometimes important to stop and thwack your sieve. Though NASA's Curiosity rover is currently undertaking a long drive to the base of Mount Sharp, where it will investigate the geologic history of Mars, it's also making time to scientifically sample the local terrain and snap some amazing photos.The rover has many months to go before its arrival at Mount Sharp, but is pausing at an outcrop nicknamed "The Kimberley" for its resemblance to a similar area in northwestern Australia. Here, it has taken some breathtaking images, such as the mosaic panorama from Mar. 27 stitched together by graphic designer and space enthusiast Jason Major. The region contains a great deal of sedimentary sandstone, which is made from small grains held together by a cement-like matrix. The characteristics of the cement, which can be anywhere from crumbly and soft to strong and hard, can tell scientists a great deal about the geologic history of this area. The Curiosity team is planning to drill into the sandstone and sample it and has even chosen a nice rock face to do some science on.In preparation for this, the team needed to "thwack" the CHIMRA instrument (which scoops, sieves, and delivers samples to the robot's internal lab). CHIMRA contains a large spring that was wound up and released to vibrate it, which cleaned out the residual dust from the previous sampling operation at a region called John Klein. After this, Curiosity was free to take new samples and learn about the composition of the Kimberley outcrop…"
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