[meteorite-list] Window a rock with light (was: Taking a Robotic Geologist to Mars (MSL))

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 00:51:26 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <8CF4013F0763DC8-168C-29A60_at_webmail-d129.sysops.aol.com>

Ron, List;

CheMin is a heavy hitter, but anyone know what one of these gadgets
goes for on eBay?

It has potential to ease desert hunting without getting off ones butt
...

Great down to earth explanation complete with hauling rocks around:

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/W2w0NzUvEYg

Luckily, Ditch Day was in May, or someone from Caltech might have used
this tool to give Curiosity a Hot Foot when no one was looking, only to
later discover the morse code designed into the treads soon to
criss-cross Mars was altered from J-P-L to C-A-L T-E-K ;-)

Something like this...

http://tinyurl.com/alf4z8

Kindest wishes

Doug






-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: Meteorite Mailing List <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 3, 2012 7:05 pm
Subject: [meteorite-list] Taking a Robotic Geologist to Mars (MSL)



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

August 3, 2012

This story and photos are online at:
http://uanews.org/story/taking-robotic-geologist-mars .

Contact information follows this story.


Taking a Robotic Geologist to Mars

Mars rover Curiosity is the closest thing to a real geologist landing on
Mars. It will explore the composition of rocks with the help of the
world's largest reference database of minerals, housed at the University
of Arizona in Tucson

On Aug. 5, at about 10:30 p.m., an already busy summer will kick into
overdrive for University of Arizona geosciences professor Bob Downs and
one of his graduate students, Shaunna Morrison. At that time ? provided
everything goes as planned ? Curiosity, the most sophisticated
exploration
vehicle ever sent to another planet, will parachute toward the Martian
surface faster than the speed of sound after a nine-month journey
through
space. And as soon as it sinks its six wheels into the red dust, the two
scientists specializing in mineralogy will have not one, but two planets
to deal with.

As 'primary data downlink leaders" designated by NASA, Downs and
Morrison
are part of a team of scientists tasked with the identification of rocks
that Curiosity will encounter during its two-year expedition across the
floor of Gale Crater near the Martian equator.

"The Curiosity rover is the next best thing to sending a geologist to
Mars," said Downs. "It carries all the necessary equipment that we would
use here on Earth when we study rocks and minerals."

NASA's latest in a series of Mars rovers is also the biggest and best of
the bunch. Two times larger and five times heavier than the Mars
Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity rivals a small SUV
in
size and carries 15 times the weight of the scientific instruments that
Spirit and Opportunity have. Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity was
designed to survey the Martian landscape and examine rocks up close. It
is
the first rover lacking solar panels, which suffered from frequent
accumulations of dust.

Instead, a dustbin-sized nuclear generator mounted to the rover's back
powers the vehicle and its scientific payload. The heat generated by the
radioactive decay of non-weapons-grade plutonium-238 is turned into
electrical power supplying the rover's batteries day and night.

Curiosity is the first rover sent to another planet capable of not only
navigating the terrain, but scooping up and analyzing rock and dust
samples. Its mission is to venture up to 12 miles from its landing site
and explore the area for past or present conditions favorable for life,
and conditions capable of preserving a record of life. The rover is
expected to collect, grind and analyze about 70 samples of soil and
rock.

Downs and Morrison are members of the science team in charge of CheMin,
one of 10 scientific instruments mounted on the rover. CheMin, short for
chemistry and mineralogy, is the first X-ray diffractometer ever sent to
space, said Downs.

"It works by shooting X-rays at a rock sample, which interact with the
electrons in the rock and send back signals that are like fingerprints,"
he explained. "It's the standard for identifying minerals, just what you
would do in a lab here on Earth."

Once CheMin has finished analyzing a rock sample, which can take up to
10
hours, Curiosity will send the data to Earth, where Downs and Morrison
will be among those who gather the data and interpret them.

Downs has accumulated the largest database of minerals in the world.
About
5,000 small vials, neatly labeled and stored in a cabinet in his lab,
represent about 2,200 species of the approximate 4,600 known Earth
minerals, more than any other lab in the world. The scientists will use
that database to figure out what minerals make up the sample that
Curiosity scooped up millions of miles away based on its X-ray
?fingerprint,? which is unique to each mineral.

"The beauty of X-ray diffraction is that even if we get a sample of an
unknown mineral, we can figure out its exact chemical composition and
structure."

The technique was not an option on previous, solar-powered rovers
because
it requires high energies of about 45,000 volts.

Another instrument, ChemCam, short for chemistry through the camera,
combines a camera with a mass spectrometer to analyze rocks from a
distance.

In Star-Wars-like fashion, ChemCam, mounted onto the rover's mast, will
shoot a laser beam at a rock up to 23 feet away, vaporize a small amount
of it and a spectrometer will analyze the rock's chemical composition
based on the pattern of the reflected light. The idea is to sample the
terrain from a distance and get a rough overview of its composition
before
sending the rover for a close investigation. In addition, the rover is
equipped with a magnifying glass and a digital camera providing
real-color, close-up views of rocks.

"That's the first thing a geologist would do here on Earth," Downs said.
"Take your hand lens to the rock and ask, what are we looking at here?
If
it?s anything of interest, we would focus on it, grab the stuff and
really
figure out what it is."

Curiosity's landing site was carefully selected to yield as much
information as possible about Mars' geologic past. Images and
spectroscopic analyses taken from an orbit around Mars by the
UA-operated
HiRISE camera have identified minerals at the bottom of Gale Crater,
such
as clays and sulfates, which require liquid water to form.

Of special interest is Mount Sharp, a central mound rising about 3.4
miles
from the crater bottom. The rock layering in Mount Sharp suggests it is
the surviving remnant of an extensive sequence of sediments preserving
clues to the geologic past of Mars, waiting to be deciphered.

"It turns out that near the place we're going to land, there are some
boulders that may have rolled down the mountain," Downs said, "so we
might
able to sample parts of the mountain without actually having to go up
there."

Morrison is especially fascinated by rare Earth minerals, a group of
minerals comprising about 300 known species on Earth. Some of them are
poorly understood, others are still waiting to be discovered and
described
scientifically.

Rare Earth minerals attract increasing interest from scientists and
engineers because of their unique chemical properties. Some of them have
strong magnetic properties, enabling engineers to build smaller
electrical
motors or tiny yet powerful speakers.

"Rare Earth minerals are heavily used in almost all our modern
technology," Morrison explained. "iPods, TVs, LED screens, they all
depend
on those minerals."

During Curiosity's mission, she hopes to be able to divide her time
between her Earthly research and helping identify minerals on Mars.
Currently, she is involved in a study trying to characterize a
previously
unknown Rare Earth mineral.

Finding Rare Earth minerals on Mars would be a surprise to scientists
because it is thought that in terms of its mineral evolution Mars never
got quite as far as the Earth.

"Two-thirds of known minerals on Earth formed because of interactions
among rocks, atmosphere and life," Downs said. "Mars may not have gone
that far. We may find that it 'froze' at an earlier stage so to speak."

Asked if he expected to find any mineral on Mars that does not occur on
Earth, he paused, then said, "I don't know. Probably not, but I hope
there
is something new. Just for the challenge, you know?"



# # #

Science Contact:
Bob Downs
Department of Geosciences
The University of Arizona
520-626-8092
rdowns at u.arizona.edu


Media Contact:
Daniel Stolte
University Communications
The University of Arizona
520-626-4402
stolte at email.arizona.edu

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Received on Sat 04 Aug 2012 12:51:26 AM PDT