“Mars was habitable”. Curiosity continues its journey on the red planet.

Arrived ten years ago on Mars, Curiosity, NASA’s explorer robot, will head for a new area of ​​the red planet in order to continue its explorations.

The robot is regarding to discover a region whose soil is essentially composed of sulphates.

KEYSTONE

The rover, which had a scheduled lifespan of two years when it arrived on Mars on August 6, 2012, is playing overtime: in April, its activity was once once more extended by NASA until September 2025.

For this new period of its Martian “life”, the robot is regarding to discover a region whose soil is essentially composed of sulphates, which it has not yet studied.

“This zone, which we see a lot on Mars, marks a climatic transition towards the aridity and drying out that we now know”, explains Olivier Gasnault, scientist in charge of France for ChemCam, a Franco-American instrument on board Curiosity.

300 people

“The main conclusion that can be drawn from the studies carried out by Curiosity, and this was one of the objectives of the mission, is that Mars was habitable for a simple form of life”, rejoices Valérie Mousset, project manager of the “Mars Science Laboratory” (MSL) and Curiosity at the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse.

“There was liquid and stable water, and the presence of the molecules necessary for microbiological life,” she adds.

At a slower pace, in order to spare its abilities, the robot advances towards a valley 800 m wide, at the bottom of which the scientists believe they can glimpse the remains of a canal. “We wonder if this is not one of the last flows on Mars,” says Olivier Gasnault, who hopes to verify this hypothesis.

“Three hundred people in France have been involved since the beginning” on the project of this rover which has traveled 28 km and climbed 600 meters of altitude difference since its arrival on Martian soil.

“Curiosity has allowed a change of scale in planetary exploration, by bringing a small laboratory on site, but also to establish strategies and ask the right questions for the next missions”, explained Olivier Gasnault in the premises of CNES, a few days before the tenth anniversary of the robot’s landing.

ATS