Skip to main content

Curiosity rover investigates salty region of Mars for clues of life

When it comes to hunting for evidence of ancient life on Mars, some key features that scientists want to explore are areas with high levels of sulfate minerals. These salts form in the presence of water, so even though Mars is dry today, finding these minerals now indicates that there was once water in the region. And areas of water are places where life is most likely to have developed. So it’s an exciting time when a Mars rover reaches an area high in sulfates, and the Curiosity rover recently arrived at one such location on Mount Sharp in the Gale Crater.

The sulfates had been identified from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter years ago as a key target for Curiosity to explore, and the rover has already identified a variety of rock types and salt minerals in the area including magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate, and sodium chloride or table salt.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this panorama of a hill nicknamed Bolívar and adjacent sand ridges on Aug. 23, the 3,572nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this panorama of a hill nicknamed Bolívar and adjacent sand ridges on Aug. 23, the 3,572nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

While exploring the area, the Curiosity team chose a rock they named Canaima to collect a sample from, but because of the firmness of the rock, it was a difficult one to approach. The arm which Curiosity uses to move its drill into place has had some issues recently, as the brakes on the arm stopped working and a new set of spare brakes had to be used instead.

Recommended Videos

“As we do before every drill, we brushed away the dust and then poked the top surface of Canaima with the drill. The lack of scratch marks or indentations was an indication that it may prove difficult to drill,” said Curiosity’s project manager, Kathya Zamora-Garcia, in a statement. “We paused to consider whether that posed any risk to our arm. With the new drilling algorithm, created to minimize the use of percussion, we felt comfortable collecting a sample of Canaima. As it turned out, no percussion was needed.”

With the sample successfully collected, Curiosity can now analyze it using its instruments to learn more about the region and the sulfates it contains.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Mysterious colorful clouds drift through Mars’s sky in new Curiosity images
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this feather-shaped iridescent cloud just after sunset on Jan. 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Studying the colors in iridescent clouds tells scientists something about particle size within the clouds and how they grow over time.

As the Curiosity rover explores its way around Mars, it isn't only looking down at the martian rocks and regolith -- it is also looking up at the martian sky. Like Earth, Mars has its own seasonal weather patterns, but with its different atmosphere that weather can include some unusual phenomena, such as striking colorful clouds.

A recent video created from images captured by Curiosity shows clouds tinted red and green flowing though the sky over Mars. Captured using the rover's Mastcam instrument on January 17, 2025, the video shows the clouds during twilight on the red planet.

Read more
NASA’s Mars rover collects rock sample ‘unlike anything we’ve seen before’
Perseverance's 26th rock sample collected from the Martian surface.

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of its 26th collected rock sample, named “Silver Mountain,” using its onboard Sample Caching System Camera, located inside the rover's underbelly. The camera looks directly down into the top of a sample tube to take close-up pictures of the sampled material and the tube ahead of sealing and storage. NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA is getting excited about a special rock that its Perseverance rover has just scooped up from the surface of Mars.

Read more
Elon Musk voices renewed hope for first crewed Mars mission
In this artist’s concept, NASA astronauts drill into the Martian subsurface. The agency has created new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts.

With his new buddy Donald Trump now back in the White House, SpaceX boss Elon Musk has renewed hope of getting the first humans to Mars before the end of this decade.

During his inauguration speech on Monday, President Trump said that his administration “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

Read more