[meteorite-list] Curiosity Rover Makes First Use of its Brush

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:25:28 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201301080025.r080PSE1017634_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-009

NASA's Big Mars Rover Makes First Use of its Brush
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 07, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has completed first-time
use of a brush it carries to sweep dust off rocks.

Nearing the end of a series of first-time uses of the rover's tools, the
mission has cleared dust away from a targeted patch on a flat Martian
rock using the Dust Removal Tool.

The tool is a motorized, wire-bristle brush designed to prepare selected
rock surfaces for enhanced inspection by the rover's science
instruments. It is built into the turret at the end of the rover's arm.
In particular, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer and the Mars Hand
Lens Imager, which share the turret with the brush and the rover's
hammering drill, can gain information after dust removal that would not
be accessible from a dust-blanketed rock.

Choosing an appropriate target was crucial for the first-time use of the
Dust Removal Tool. The chosen target, called "Ekwir_1," is on a rock in
the "Yellowknife Bay" area of Mars' Gale Crater. The rover team is also
evaluating rocks in that area as potential targets for first use of the
rover's hammering drill in coming weeks.

Images of the brushed area on Ekwir are online at
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16565 and
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16566 .

"We wanted to be sure we had an optimal target for the first use," said
Diana Trujillo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
the mission's activity lead for the Dust Removal Tool. "We need to place
the instrument within less than half an inch of the target without
putting the hardware at risk. We needed a flat target, one that wasn't
rough, one that was covered with dust. The results certainly look good."

Honeybee Robotics, New York, N.Y., built the Dust Removal Tool for
Curiosity, as well as tools for two previous Mars rovers, Spirit and
Opportunity, which included wire brushes plus rock-grinding mechanisms.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity to investigate
whether the study area within Gale Crater has offered environmental
conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science
Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For more information about the mission, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

Follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-009
Received on Mon 07 Jan 2013 07:25:28 PM PST