NASA Rover's First Soil Studies Help Fingerprint Martian Minerals | Synopsis

NASA Rover's First Soil Studies Help Fingerprint Martian Minerals

NASA's Curiousity Mars Rover by IntelFreePress
License (according to Flickr): Attribution-ShareAlike License

Excerpt:

The minerals were recognized in the very first sample of Martian soil ate recently by the rover. Curiosity utilized its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) to get the results, which are filling gaps and including self-confidence to earlier quotes of the mineralogical make-up of the dust and great soil extensive on the Red Planet. "We had many previous inferences and discussions about the mineralogy of Martian soil," stated David Blake of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. , who is the principal detective for CheMin. "Our quantitative results provide refined and in some cases new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars."
The identification of minerals in rocks and soil is essential for the objective 's objective to assess past ecological conditions. Each mineral records the conditions under which it formed.

Concepts:

NASA Mars Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Exploration Rover X-ray Mineral X-ray crystallography Mars Science Laboratory

People:

CheMin

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.80329

David Blake

Overall Sentiment: 0.214138

Relevance: 0.374389

Sentiment	Quote
0	"We had many previous inferences and discussions about the mineralogy of Martian soil," said David Blake ...
0.168458	"We had many previous inferences and discussions about the mineralogy of Martian soil," said David Blake of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., who is the principal investigator for CheMin. "Our quantitative results provide refined and in some cases new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars."
0.3772	"Our team is elated with these first results from our instrument," said Blake.
0.101733	"Our team is elated with these first results from our instrument," said Blake. "They heighten our anticipation for future CheMin analyses in the months and miles ahead for Curiosity."
Sentiment Stats:	Number of Quotes: 4 Aggregate Sentiment: 0.647391 Mean: 0.16184775 Standard Deviation: 1.7320508075689

David Bish

Overall Sentiment: -0.0330892

Relevance: 0.335834

Sentiment	Quote
-0.117435	"Much of Mars is covered with dust, and we had an incomplete understanding of its mineralogy," said David Bish, ...
0.0242783	"Much of Mars is covered with dust, and we had an incomplete understanding of its mineralogy," said David Bish, CheMin co-investigator with Indiana University in Bloomington. "We now know it is mineralogically similar to basaltic material, with significant amounts of feldspar, pyroxene and olivine, which was not unexpected. Roughly half the soil is non-crystalline material, such as volcanic glass or products from weathering of the glass."
0.0712223	Bish said, "So far, the materials Curiosity has analyzed are consistent with our initial ideas of the deposits in Gale Crater recording a transition through time from a wet to dry environment. The ancient rocks, such as the conglomerates, suggest flowing water, while the minerals in the younger soil are consistent with limited interaction with water."
Sentiment Stats:	Number of Quotes: 3 Aggregate Sentiment: -0.0219344 Mean: -0.0073114666666667 Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

Key:

• Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
• The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
• The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

Organization: NASA

Overall Sentiment: 0.0225186

Relevance: 0.465132

Disambiguation: Company | GovernmentAgency | AirportOperator | AwardPresentingOrganization | SoftwareDeveloper | SpaceAgency | SpacecraftManufacturerReferences:

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• NASA: dbpedia
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Organization: NASA Ames Research Center

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Company: Ames

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Relevance: 0.303402

Disambiguation: References:

• Ames Department Stores Inc.: dbpedia
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StateOrCounty: Calif.

Overall Sentiment: 0

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Disambiguation: Location | PoliticalDistrict | AdministrativeDivision | Appellation | GovernmentalJurisdiction | USState | WineRegionReferences:

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Technology: X-ray

Overall Sentiment: 0.192776

Relevance: 0.621862

Technology: Mineralogy

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.334277

URL Header Details

URL Provided Desc:

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has completed initial experiments showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii.

Webpage Provided Title:

NASA Rover's First Soil Studies Help Fingerprint Martian Minerals

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Source Site: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/oct/HQ_12-383_Curiosity_CheMin.html

Data Sources

Full Content: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/oct/HQ_12-383_Curiosity_CheMin.html

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