NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover To Investigate Potential Water Sites On Red Planet

American space agency NASA wants to use the Mars Curiosity rover to look for probable water sites on the red planet, as per a report. Researchers want to search for hints of life, and find reasons why Mars is a barren place now, through the images sent back by Curiosity. At the moment, the space agency is trying to figure out what would be the best way to go about the procedure.

According to NASA, if the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission gets an extension, then the rover will continue on its journey to climb higher up on Mount Sharp to investigate for how much time water rich environments continued to persist on Mars, even as the planet was drying up. Travelling to those areas will bring the rover nearer to the locations where dark streaks can be seen on some slopes (as identified by the high resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), which have been interpreted as recurring slope lineae (RSLs) or gullies that probably occur seasonally as a type of salty water at or near the Martian surface during warmer conditions. In addition, along the path, the rover would be able to take photos of the potential water sites from afar, as well as observe the presence of any seasonally changing kinds.

However, the whole process is not as easy as it seems as there are many factors that can complicate matters. "It's not as simple as driving a rover to a potential site and taking a scoop of soil," said Jim Green, dire rector of planetary science at NASA. "Not only are these on steep slopes, we need to ensure that planetary protection concerns are met. In other words, how can we search for evidence of life without contaminating the sites with bugs from Earth?"

According to NASA's planetary protection officer, the rover has to stop many kilometers away from potential sites so as to not expose them to any microbes from Earth embedded in the nooks and crannies of the rover. Extra precautions, such as stopping the rover far away, are necessary to prevent any chance of contamination, because the presence of water is a prerequisite for life and NASA doesn't want to complicate or jeopardize anything by sending the rover too near.