• Ten years ago, on August 6, 2012, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars.

  • Since then, the rover has traveled 28.4 km, fired with its ChemCam more than 900,000 times and drilled the Martian soil 35 times.

  • Thanks to the data and images collected, the scientists were able to demonstrate that the red planet could have been habitable more than 3 billion years ago in a simple form of life.

On August 6, 2012, after a seven-minute descent where NASA engineers clung to their chairs, the Curiosity rover landed its wheels in a crater on Martian soil.

The beginning of an adventure that is supposed to last two years and which, a decade later, continues to thrill scientists every morning who receive the news and images collected by this jewel of technology weighing nearly 900 kg.

Especially those behind the screens of the French Operations Center for Science and Exploration at the Toulouse Space Center.

For ten years, CNES engineers and researchers from the Astrophysics and Planetology Research Institute of the Pink City have been scrutinizing the results of the laser shots they programmed on the ChemCam instrument the day before, millions of kilometers from the cow floor.

Since its arrival on the red planet, after having traveled 28.4 km, the rover has not been idle, aiming 907,000 times at the rock that surrounds it.

Habitability of Mars demonstrated

Not for the pleasure of degumming sediments, but to fulfill the objectives of the Mars Science Laboratory exploration mission, launched in 2003, by observing their chemical composition using a spectrometer.

“Earth and Mars formed at the same time but evolved differently.

We want to know why Mars became the way it is.

It is also a way to better understand the Earth, to study the emergence of life, but also the Martian climate and, why not, prepare for the next human exploration", recalls Valérie Mousset, Curiosity project manager at CNES. .

A mission that Curiosity has already largely fulfilled since it has demonstrated "that Mars in the past could have been habitable more than 3 billion years ago in a simple form of life", continues the manager.

Curiosity thus found traces of water, chemical and energetic compounds necessary for microbiological life and traces of organic molecules.

At the border between clays and sulphates, @MarsCuriosity continues its investigation of the history of water on Mars in a magnificent landscape.

https://t.co/oaR4HUNQOx

— Olivier Gasnault (@OlivierGasnault) June 23, 2022

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“Thanks to all these measurements, we were able to make a chemical map.

We are therefore interested in small transformations over time, how many times the rocks have been in contact with water but also to look at how they have been shaped by the wind", continues Olivier Gasnault, head of the ChemCam instrument and researcher at IRAP.

Like this fascinating image of a 1cm sand rose, a tiny concretion eroded by sedimentary rock that has been cemented together by mineral-rich groundwater.

I spy with my hand-held imager (MAHLI) this beautiful, fragile and tiny feature.

It's a concretion, eroded from sedimentary rock that was cemented by mineral-rich groundwater.

Size?

Just 1cm.

https://t.co/753z6Q4Oqx pic.twitter.com/dCHtZs3IAR

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) March 1, 2022

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The teams have thus shown that the red planet has experienced alternating dry and wetter periods, before completely drying up nearly 3 billion years ago.

Discovering a huge valley

Thanks to its drill and excavator, Curiosity was also able to collect soil samples and analyze them.

Finding methane at low levels, clay, chlorinated salts, perchlorate and "among the latest major discoveries, we recently found sulfur compounds", notes Arnaud Buch, CNRS engineer in the atmospheres, environments, spatial observations laboratory. .

Despite well-worn wheels and extreme temperature conditions, the rover will continue to roll its hump for three more years.

NASA has indeed committed to funding the operation and research of the mission until 2025. And, while more than 3,000 km away, its successor Perseverance continues to study the surface of the Martian soil and to collect samples, Curiosity now enters a valley 800 m wide and 100 m high.

“At the bottom of the valley, there is like a river bed which could be the last flows of water on Mars.

The large scree strewn on the ground will also allow us to see what is above”, enthuses Olivier Gasnault.

The adventure is far from over.

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A strange pebble photographed on Mars by the Perseverance rover

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Thanks to Curiosity, we now know that Mars did not suddenly become arid

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