THE CURIOSITY ROVER’S MISSION ON MARS The rover, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory, is on a mission of robotic exploration of Mars, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Programme. The main purpose of the mission is to determine whether Mars ever had an environment conducive to microbial life; in other words to determine its habitability. The rover carries some of the most advanced instruments for scientific studies ever sent to Mars. Curiosity will study the planet’s climate and geology by analysing samples taken from the soil and rocks in its onboard laboratory, looking for telltale signs of the chemical building blocks of life. Curiosity is 900kg and nearly 100 times more massive than the first robot rover sent to Mars, the Mars Pathfinder, in 1997. The hi-res cameras on board can be used to ‘zap’ interesting rock features with an infrared laser to query the rock’s elemental composition. If something within that composition merits further inquiry, the rover will use its long arm to swing a microscope over that use an X-ray spectrometer for a closer look. If after that there’s still more to investigate in the sample, Curiosity can drill into the rock to get powdered samples for analysis by two high-spec analytical boxes inside its belly, to find out the rock’s exact make-up and formation conditions. It has landed in a deep hole on Mars’ equator known as Gale Crater (pictured), which has in its centre a mound of rock rising 5 km from the crater floor known as Aeolis Mons, or Mount Sharp. From satellite pictures the mound appears to be made from ancient sediments, deposited when Mars still had water at its surface. Mount Sharp appears from orbit to have a shape like Australia; Gale is named after an Australian astronomer. Now that the rover is on the surface, it is able to roll over obstacles 75 centimetres high and can travel up to 90 metres per hour; the rover will most likely travel around 30 metres per hour based on the terrain, power levels and other variables. It will drive to the base of Mount Sharp, looking for clay minerals (phyllosilicates) which only form when rock spends a lot of time in water. Mars is thought is thought to have been wet during the Noachian (between 4.1 and 3.7 billion years ago). Further up the mountain, it is hoped the rover will find sulphate salts, which would have formed in the Hesperian (around 3.7 to 3 billion years ago) when Mars was beginning to dry out. Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope power system which generates power from the heat of plutonium’s radioactive decay, giving the mission an operating lifespan on Mars of at least a full Martian year (687 Earth days). -TEL mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/overview/; .bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19112800 Photo: mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=3853
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 10:49:30 +0000
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