Sulphur-bearing Compounds Detected by MSL SAM Evolved Gas Analysis of Materials from Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars

• Main Authors: Ming, D. W., Bish, D. L., Navarro-Gonzalez, R., Eigenbrode, J. L., Rampe, E. B., Freissinet, C., Brunner, A., McAdam, A. C., Wray, J. J., Mahaffy, P. R., Morris, R. V., Archer, P. D. Jr., Franz, H. B., Atreya, S. K., Blake, D. F., Steele, A., Sutter, B.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration; Yellowknife; Yellowknife Bay
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140011763

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) analysed several subsamples of sample fines (<150 m) from three sites in Yellowknife Bay, an aeolian bedform termed Rocknest (hereafter "RN") and two samples drilled from the Sheepbed mudstone at sites named John Klein ("JK") and Cumberland ("CB"). SAM's evolved gas analysis (EGA) mass spectrometry detected H2O, CO2, O2, H2, SO2, H2S, HCl, NO, OCS, CS2 and other trace gases. The identity of evolved gases and temperature (T) of evolution can support mineral detection by CheMin and place constraints on trace volatile-bearing phases present below the CheMin detection limit or difficult to characterize with XRD (e.g., X-ray amorphous phases). Here, we focus on potential constraints on phases that evolved SO2, H2S, OCS, and CS2 during thermal analysis.