11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do - Nov_21_2011

11/21/11 11 Ama]ing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do - Yahoo! News

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11 Ama]ing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can DoBy Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

Space.com | SPACE.com 3 hrs ago

NASA is getting set to launch its next Mars rover this week, a 1-ton robotic beast that will take planetary exploration to the

next level.

The car-size Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, slated to blast

off Saturday (Nov. 26) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Curiosity's main goal is to assess whether the Red

Planet is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.

The rover will employ 10 different science instruments to help it answer this question once it touches down on the Red Planet

in August 2012. Here's a brief rundown of these instruments (and one more on the rover's heat shield):

Mast Camera (MastCam)

The MastCam is Curiosity's workhorse imaging tool. It will capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian

landscape, which scientists will study and laypeople will gawk at.

MastCam consists of two camera systems mounted on a mast that rises above Curiosity's main body, so the instrument will

have a good view of the Red Planet environment as the rover chugs through it. MastCam images will also help the mission

team drive and operate Curiosity. [Photos of NASA's Curiosity Rover]

Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)

MAHLI will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass, allowing Earthbound scientists to get up-close looks at

Martian rocks and soil. The instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns smaller than the width of

a human hair.

MAHLI sits on the end of Curiosity's five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm, which is itself a marvel of engineering. So

mission scientists will be able to point their high-tech hand lens pretty much wherever they want.

Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)

MARDI, a small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface

(which will be accomplished with the help of a hovering, rocket-powered sky crane). [Video: Curiosity's Peculiar Landing]

MARDI will click on a mile or two above the ground, as soon as Curiosity jettisons its heat shield. The instrument will then

take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down. The footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity's Red

Planet rovings, and it should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site, the 100-mile-wide

(160-km) Gale Crater.

Sample Anal\sis at Mars (SAM)

SAM is the heart of Curiosity; at 83 pounds (38 kilograms), it makes up about half of the rover's science payload.

SAM is actually a suite of three separate instruments a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer.

These instruments will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it. They will also look

for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

The SAM instrument suite is located in Curiosity's main body. The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an

inlet on the rover's exterior. Some of these samples will come from the interior of rocks, powder bored out by a 2-inch (5-

centimeter) drill situated at the end of the arm.



None of Curiosity's predecessors could get deep into Martian rocks, so scientists are excited about the drill.

"For a geologist that studies rocks, there's nothing better than getting inside," said MSL deputy project scientist Joy Crisp, of

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Chemistr\ and Mineralog\ (CheMin)

CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance, which will help scientists better

understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet.

Like SAM, CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm. The instrument

will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays

diffract.

"This is like magic to us," Crisp told SPACE.com. X-ray diffraction is a leading diagnostic technique for Earthbound

geologists, she explained, but it hasn't made it to Mars yet. So CheMin should help Curiosity provide more definitive mineral

characterizations than previous Mars rovers such as Spirit and Opportunity have been able to achieve.

Chemistr\ and Camera (ChemCam)

For sheer coolness, it's tough to beat ChemCam. This instrument will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9

meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits.

ChemCam will thus enable Curiosity to study rocks that are out of reach of its flexible robotic arm. It will also help the

mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform.

ChemCam is composed of several different parts. The laser sits on Curiosity's mast, along with a camera and a small

telescope. Three spectrographs sit in the rover's body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics. The spectrographs

will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples.

Alpha Particle X-Ra\ Spectrometer (APXS)

APXS, which sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks

and dirt.

Curiosity will place the instrument in contact with samples of interest, and APXS will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei.

This barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays. Scientists will be able to

identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays.

Spirit and Opportunity were outfitted with a previous version of APXS and used the instrument to help elucidate the

prominent role water has played in shaping the Martian landscape. [Latest Mars Photos From Spirit and Opportunity]

D\namic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)

DAN, located near the back of Curiosity's main body, will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath

the Martian surface.

The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they

bounce back. Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground

water or ice.

DAN should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m).

Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)

The toaster-size RAD is designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars. The instrument will

measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays.

RAD's observations will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars.



This information could also help researchers understand how much of a hurdle Mars' radiation environment might have

posed to the origin and evolution of life on the Red Planet.

Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)

This tool, which sits partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station. REMS will measure atmospheric pressure,

humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.

All of this information will be integrated into daily and seasonal reports, allowing scientists to get a detailed look at the

Martian environment.

MSL Entr\, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)

MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments, since it's built into the heat shield that will protect the rover on its descent

through the Martian atmosphere. But it's worth a few words here.

MEDLI will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the

Martian sky. This information will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory,

performed.

Researchers will use MEDLI data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft.

You can folloZ SPACE.com senior Zriter Mike Wall on TZitter: @michaeldZall. FolloZ SPACE.com for the latest in space

science and e[ploration neZs on TZitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Photo Gallery: Last Look at Mars Rover Curiosity Before Launch

5 Bold Claims of Alien Life

Photos: Gale Crater on Mars, Curiosity Rover's Landing Site

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11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do - Nov_21_2011

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