Assessments of potential rock coatings at Rocknest, Gale Crater with ChemCam.

Abstract

Many locations on Mars have low color contrast between the rocks and soils due to the rocks being “dusty”—basically having a surface that is spectrally similar to Martian soil. In general this has been interpreted as soil and/or dust clinging to the rock though either mechanical or electrostic processes. However, given the apparent mobility of thin films of water forming cemented soils on Mars and at Gale Crater [e.g. 1,2], the possibility exists that some of these “dusty” surfaces may actually be coatings formed by thin films of water locally mobilizing soil/air fall material at the rock interface. This type of coating was observed by Spirit during an investigation of the rock Mazatzal which showed enhanced salts above “normal soil” [3] and an enhancement of nano phase iron oxide that was ~ 10 μm thick [4]. We decided to use ChemCam to investigate the possibility of similar rock coatings forming at the Rocknest site at Gale Crater.