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Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Laser Instrument on NASA Mars Rover Tops 100,000 Zaps - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte112 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity
  • has passed the milestone of 100,000 shots fired by its laser.
  • The 100,000th shot was one of a series of 300 to investigate 10 locations on a rock called "Ithaca" in late October
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • at a distance of 13 feet, 3 inches (4.04 meters) from the laser and telescope on rover's mast
  • Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) uses the infrared laser to excite material in a pinhead-size spot on the target into a glowing, ionized gas, called plasma.
  • ChemCam observes that spark with the telescope and analyzes the spectrum of light to identify elements in the target
  • As of the start of December, ChemCam has fired its laser on Mars more than 102,000 times, at more than 420 rock or soil targets
  • The instrument has also returned more than 1,600 images taken by its remote micro-imager camera
  • Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second
  • The technique used by ChemCam, called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, has been used to assess composition of targets in other extreme environments, such as inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Images - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...images

scibyte91 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • NASA's Curiosity Mars rover targeted the laser of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument with remarkable accuracy for assessing the composition of the wall of a drilled hole and tailings that resulted from the drilling
  • ChemCam fired its laser 150 times (5 bursts of 30 shots, each burst at a different target point) on the drill tailings between the two holes and 300 times (10 bursts of 30 shots) in the drill hole itself
  • The same day, ChemCam's remote micro-imager (RMI) captured images of the laser pits: small craters in the loose tailing
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • and tiny scrapes on the hard surface of the hole walls
  • Mars Base on 21 Apr 13
     
    Accurate pointing by Curiosity
Mars Base

NASA - Rover Results at Rocknest - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20121207.html

scibyte74 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 10 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • wrapped up our scientific study of Rocknest, which also means that we’ve completed the checkout and first scientific use of all our instruments on the rover and it truly is working great.
  • used out ChemCam laser and our APXS chemical sensor to do an initial technical analysis of the soil
  • using our Mastcam color cameras
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • MAHLI, our hand lens imager to take close up views of the soil to look at different particle sizes, shapes and colors and how they change with depth
  • analyzed it if our X-ray diffraction instrument that can identify minerals in the soil based on their unique crystal structure
  • a good amount of the material in the soil was not crystalline but that’s not a problem for our other laboratory, SAM.
  • results show a composition that is typical of Mars soils studied at other sites with perhaps some very simple carbon containing molecules and perchlorate salts.
  • haven’t yet seen any complex organic molecules but sand isn’t the best place to look
  • There won’t be any single image or measurement that’ll answer everything.
Mars Base

NASA - Curiosity Rover Gives Mars the Brush-Off - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20130110.html

scibyte77

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • the team downloaded as much data as possible from Curiosity to free up the onboard data storage space to give her a fresh start to the New Year.
  • started off with a small 3-meter drive to an interesting feature called Snake River.
  • Over time, dust accumulated on all the rocks and it hides features, such as fissures, inclusions or pits that are of interest.
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  • he team selected a rock for the first time use of the dust removal tool.
  • The tool has a set of spinning metallic brushes and this allows for the features to be exposed for unobstructed APXS or ChemCam observations
  • the team is searching for a suitable rock to test out the rotary-percussive drill.
  • it will be the first time that we will be drilling into a rock, acquire sample from deep within the rock, and also sort and transport it to the science instruments on board Curiosit
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Remaining Martian Atmosphere Still Dynamic - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte89 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 09 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Evidence has strengthened this month that Mars lost much of its original atmosphere by a process of gas escaping from the top of the atmosphere
  • Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument analyzed an atmosphere sample
  • using a process that concentrates selected gases
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • The results provided the most precise measurements ever made of isotopes of argon in the Martian atmosphere
  • found
  • the clearest and most robust signature of atmospheric loss on Mars
  • Isotopes are variants of the same element with different atomic weights
  • SAM found that the Martian atmosphere has about four times as much of a lighter stable isotope (argon-36) compared to a heavier one (argon-38)
  • This removes previous uncertainty about the ratio in the Martian atmosphere from 1976 measurements from NASA's Viking project and from small volumes of argon extracted from Martian meteorites
  • The ratio is much lower than the solar system's original ratio, as estimated from argon-isotope measurements of the sun and Jupiter
  • This points to a process at Mars that favored preferential loss of the lighter isotope over the heavier one
  • Curiosity measures several variables
  • with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS),
  • daily air temperature has climbed steadily since the measurements began eight months ago and is not strongly tied to the rover's location
  • humidity has differed significantly at different places along the rover's route
  • Trails of dust devils have not been seen inside Gale Crater
  • REMS sensors detected many whirlwind patterns during the first hundred Martian days of the mission, though not as many as detected in the same length of time by earlier missions
  • Curiosity will be drilling into another rock where the rover is now, but that target has not yet been selected. The science team will discuss this over the conjunction period
  • For the rest of April, Curiosity will carry out daily activities for which commands were sent in March, using DAN, REMS and the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD).
  • ChemCam reveals a complex chemical composition of the dust that includes hydrogen, which could be in the form of hydroxyl groups or water molecules
Mars Base

Video Transcript: Curiosity's Cameras - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 0 views

www.jpl.nasa.gov/...video-transcript.php

scibyte98 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • received a lot of questions about the cameras on the rovers and we're here to answer some of those questions
  • The Curiosity rover actually has 17 cameras on it, which is the most of any NASA planetary mission ever.
  • took pictures as the rover was landing on Mars
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • MARDI, or the Mars Descent Imager,
  • is the camera mounted on the end of the arm, and that takes close-up, high-resolution color photos
  • MAHLI
  • hazard avoidance cameras, or the HazCams. There are four of these in the front and four in the back, and they're used to take pictures of the terrain near the wheels and nearby the rover
  • Navigation Cameras, which take pictures that are used to drive the rover
  • Mast Cameras, which are color imagers, which are used to do geology investigations
  • the remote microscopic imager, which is part of the ChemCam laser instrument. And that's used to document the laser spots, that the rover makes on the surface
  • Many of the black and white images that come back from the rover are
  • black and white, or gray scale as we call it, is because that's all the rover really needs in order to detect rocks and other obstacles
  • Other cameras are color, such as the Mastcam imager, and the reason that they're color is because the scientists use the color information to learn about the soil and the rocks
  • There are 1-megapixel black and white imagers for the engineering cameras and 2-megapixel color imagers for the science cameras
  • In addition to the video that we took when the rover descending on to the surface, we've taken movies of the soil being shaken in the scoop.
  • files are pretty large and because we have a limited downlink each day, the scientists prefer to take still images of new targets
Mars Base

Historic Mars Rock Drilling Sample Set for Analysis by Curiosity Robot in Search of Org... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ty-robot-in-search-of-organics

scibyte83 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 25 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • examining ancient rocks that have not been exposed to the Martian surface environment, and weathering, and preserve the environment in which they formed
  • This is a key point because subsequent oxidation reactions can destroy organic molecules and thereby potential signs of habitability and life.
  • The tailings are gray. All things being equal it’s better to have a gray color than red because oxidation is something that can destroy organic compounds
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  • data so far indicate the drilled rock is either siltstone or mudstone with a basaltic bulk composition
  • The CheMin and SAM testing will be revealing
  • The high powered drill was the last of Curiosity 10 instruments still to be checked out and put into full operation and completes the robots commissioning phase
  • So far she has snapped over 45,000 images, traveled nearly 0.5 miles, conducted 25 analysis with the APXS spectrometer and fired over 12,000 laser shots with the ChemCam instrument
Mars Base

10 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do | NASA, Mars Science Laboratory & Curio... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-rover-curiosity-science.html

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 20 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Mast Camera (MastCam)
  • capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian landscape, which scientists will study and laypeople will gawk at
  • Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
  • ...43 more annotations...
  • will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass
  • 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
  • Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
  • small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface
  • 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
  • Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
  • makes up about half of the rover's science payload.
  • a suite of three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer
  • will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it
  • look for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
  • The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an inlet on the rover's exterior
  • Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
  • CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance
  • will help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet
  • CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm
  • will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract
  • Chemistry and Camera (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
  • help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform
  • 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
  • spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt
  • 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
  • Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (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
  • 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)
  • instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays
  • designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars
  • will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars
  • Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
  • partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station
  • measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.
  • integrated into daily and seasonal reports
  • MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)
  • MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments
  • will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky
  • will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory, performed
  • data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft
Mars Base

Curiosity Pulls into Kimberly and Spies Curvy Terrain For Drilling Action - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...vy-terrain-for-drilling-action

scibyte124 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 23 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • NASA’s Curiosity rover has just pulled into
  • terrain chock full of curvy rock outcrops at Kimberly that’s suitable for contact science and drilling action
  • The robot’s arm has been deployed to investigate the most scientifically productive spots
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • the mast mounted ChemCam laser and high resolution cameras to determine the best spot for drilling and sampling.
  • the art robot is conducting contact science with the cameras and spectrometers on the terminus of the 7 foot long robotic arm
  • The team commanded Curiosity to clean out the arms CHIMRA sample handling mechanism in anticipation of boring into the Martian outcrops and delivering
  • samples of cored Martian rocks to the SAM and CheMin miniaturized chemistry labs
  • Scientists directed Curiosity on a pinpoint drive to Kimberly after their interest was piqued by orbital images taken
  • NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • see three terrain types exposed and a relatively dust-free surface
  • The missions science focus has shifted to “search for that subset of habitable environments which also preserves organic carbon,”
  • To date Curiosity’s odometer stands at 6.2 kilometers
  • has somewhat over another 4 kilometers to go to reach the base of Mount Sharp
  • may arrive at the lower reaches of Mount Sharp sometime in mid 2014, but must first pass through a potentially treacherous dune field
Mars Base

Images - Mars Science Laboratory - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...images

scibyte131 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 18 May 14 - No Cached
  • NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on its robotic arm to illuminate and record this nighttime view of the sandstone rock target "Windjana."
  • The rover had previously drilled a hole to collect sample material from the interior of the rock and then zapped a series of target points inside the hole with the laser of the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument
  • The hole is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • That instrument provides information about the target's composition by analysis of the sparks of plasma generated by the energy of the laser beam striking the target
  • This view combines eight separate MAHLI exposures, taken at different focus settings to show the entire scene in focus
  • The exposures were taken after dark on the 628th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (May 13, 2014)
  • MAHLI includes light-emitting diodes as well as a color camera.
  • Using the instrument's own lighting yields an image of the hole's interior with less shadowing than would be seen in a sunlit image
  • The camera's inspection of the interior of the hole provides documentation about what the drill bit passed through as it penetrated the rock -- for example, to see if it cut through any mineral veins or visible layering
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