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upstart writes:

Mars rover Curiosity reaches sulfate-rich Mount Sharp:

NASA's long-serving Curiosity Mars rover has finally reached an objective it has been ambling toward since landing on the red planet a decade ago: the "sulfate-bearing unit" of Mount Sharp.

The region was first spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying the Gale Crater region of Mars since 2006. NASA flagged the area for investigation because of a high concentration of salty minerals that suggests it was once covered in water.

"Soon after arriving, the rover discovered a diverse array of rock types and signs of past water," NASA said. Among the signs were "popcorn-textured nodules" and minerals including magnesium sulfate (epsom salts), calcium sulfate (gypsum), and sodium chloride (table salt).

[...] Curiosity has had its sights set on Mount Sharp since landing on Mars in 2012. The three-mile (5km) mountain has appeared in Curiosity's photos from the Martian surface for years, and in 2020 NASA began highlighting the rover's journey up the mountain to the sulfate site.

[...] "The sand ridges were gorgeous," Elena Amador-French said. "You see perfect little rover tracks on them. And the cliffs were beautiful – we got really close to the walls."

NASA hopes that its research in the sulfate-rich unit will provide additional clues as to how Mars dried up and turned into the barren wasteland we now believe it to be. Curiosity found evidence earlier this year that methane-producing life may have existed on Mars, and in the meantime simulations of Mars' environment may have provided a hypothesis that Curiosity can at least contribute to solving.

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