Weird Martian object traced to rover

NASA / JPL-Caltech / LANL

This closeup picture from the Curiosity rover's ChemCam imager shows the mystery object just to left of center. It's the object that looks like a tiny shred of plastic.

By Alan Boyle

A tiny, bright object that was spotted on the Martian surface next to the Curiosity rover appears to be a shred of plastic from the rover itself, NASA reported today.

That assessment, based on an analysis of imagery from the rover's ChemCam micro-imager, echoes the speculation that bubbled up around Twitter (and in Cosmic Log) on Monday. If further investigation confirms the experts' preliminary conclusion, Curiosity should be able to give the shred wide berth and proceed with its scooping activity at a spot known as Rocknest.

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Curiosity's scoop had just picked up a full load of soil from Rocknest's sand dune and was shaking it around when the rover team noticed the bright little fleck. Team members decided to hold up on processing the sample until they could identify the object. They want to make sure they won't be putting any contaminants (such as plastic trash) into the rover's sensitive sampling system.

It's not unusual for rovers to spot bits of hardware or other spacecraft debris in their surroundings. Past examples include Opportunity's "bunny ears" (a bit of fabric) and "rover rotini" (an artifact created by the rover's drill), as well as a spring that was dropped onto the surface by the Phoenix Mars Lander. It looks as if Curiosity's shred will join that collection. As we noted on Monday, lots of plastic tape is used on the rover to insulate wiring, and it's likely that a tiny bit of it was shaken loose.?

Here's the mission status report from NASA. If there's a follow-up report on the object, I'll add it to this item:

"Curiosity's main activity in the 62nd sol of the mission (Oct. 8, 2012) was to image a small, bright object on the ground using the Remote Micro-Imager of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.

"The rover team's assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely benign, but it has not been definitively identified.

"To proceed cautiously, the team is continuing the investigation for another day before deciding whether to resume processing of the sample in the scoop. Plans include imaging of surroundings with the Mastcam.

"A sample of sand and dust scooped up on Sol 61 remains in the scoop. Plans to transfer it from the scoop into other chambers of the sample-processing device were postponed as a precaution during planning for Sol 62 after the small, bright object was detected in an image from the Mast Camera (Mastcam).

"A Sol 62 raw image from ChemCam, at http://1.usa.gov/R1fZHt, shows the object in question just to left of center of the image...."

More about Mars:

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Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/09/14323399-weird-martian-object-traced-to-rover?lite

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