October 9, 2012 at 08:32Research MSL Curiosity
After Curiosity successfully landed, tested the functionality of its instruments and devices, it was time for business. The first studies were conducted in test mode. The first of these tests was a check of the Chem Cam laser and chemical spectrum analyzer.
In order to determine the functionality of the Chem Cam, the first Martian target named “Stone No. 165” was chosen.
Then it was renamed to Coronation and the results of the study were published under that name.
Without moving, Curiosity tested the Russian DAN device, assessing the hydrogen content in the soil beneath it,
then checked the REMS climate sensors
Chem Cam fired a series of shots at a section of the ground that was exposed by the impact of the jet stream of the landing Sky Crane. As it became known later, this place was called Goulburn.
But the results of its NASA did not bother to tell.
After the first demonstration studies, MSL operators no longer pamper Internet users with detailed gifts. Even when the next device was tested - APXS scientists limited themselves to commenting that during the test "very accurate peaks were obtained, as when tested under ideal conditions."
Therefore, it remained only to follow the photo shoots regularly sent from Mars, and to assume that this time NASA was interested in one or another sample, to which Curiosity paid special attention.
Thus, it was noticed that the rover was eyeing a crack in the ground.
Later it became known that this place was named Link. It became one of the three locations of rounded pebbles, and proof of the activity of water on the surface of Mars.
The Hottah site also seemed interesting not only to NASA, but also to ordinary Internet users. True, people far from science, and with good imagination, this place seemed proof of the existence on Mars of roboids - underground monsters from the series of films "Earth quake".
Indeed, it seems as if something had jumped out of the ground, and did not fall into it from the sky. Then NASA still explained that this was a sign of a meteorite fall.
The sections of Goulburn, Link and Hottah were later made public as evidence of a pre-existing stream that dipped pebbles in a way that no other science-known process could.
True, there were no traces of the channel of the stream itself either from the surface or from space, so NASA did not exclude the possibility that all this pebble was brought from somewhere in the mudflow mountains.
But all the media ignored such subtleties, pleased the world with headlines: “ Curiosity found the stream ”
The next find excited many.
The first frames transmitted by Curiosity showed a pyramidal stone. The unusually straight lines of its faces, the right angle observed at the base, and the observation that the stone simply lies on the ground, as if it had been specially laid in the path of the rover, were also surprising. Particularly impressionable were immediately discerned on its faces hieroglyphs and hollowed out “eyes”.
Contrary to the NASA hiding stereotype, experts detained the rover by the stone for three days. During this time, the Mast Cam cameras shot it in the most detailed way.
And for the first time, the camera on the MAHLI manipulator was tested in practice
The chemical composition of the stone, named in memory of one of NASA engineers Jake Matijevic, was studied using a Chem Cam laser and irradiated with alpha rays from the APXS (Alpha-Particle X-ray Spectrometer). Thanks to a double study, it was possible to evaluate the quality of analysis of each instrument, but NASA modestly kept the results with itself.
But even the photos destroyed any hopes for the man-made shape of the stone. The
published Curiosity route map showed that the rover purposefully moved towards it for two days from 41 to 43 sols, which explains the “unexpectedness” of the appearance of the stone right on the way.
Finally, after delays and over four hundred meters of the journey, the rover approached the previously announced goal - the Glenelg point.
Here he made a detailed panorama of the area.The
full format of the panorama here
and his attention was attracted by a noticeable outcrop of
stones.Only one target was chosen, named Bathurst Inlet (with the exception of names like Bradbury Landing and Jake Matijevic, NASA takes the names from Canadian place names).
She was also carefully examined by the MAHLI camera. The
bare side of the stone suggests that Curiosity used the DRT device, which consists of two brushes on the rotor.
His task is precisely to clean the samples from dust, for the convenience of studying cameras and APXS. Previous tests showed that dust is not a hindrance for the Chem Cam - the laser simply evaporates it with the first pulses, and a further series of rays already shows the chemical composition of the sample.
After walking a few meters, the rover lingered at a small sand spit, outlined by the wind behind a group of stones.
Here the sand was photographed in close-up.
Shot by a laser. A
test was made with the “foot”.
And the result was photographed again
(just don’t ask why the sand stuck if it’s -75 C and it can’t be wet. I don’t want to explain cement and flour)
Finally, the rover decided to move to a new level of relations with this sand and with Mars - he scooped up the first handful of sand to put it in his laboratory gut.
While this text was being prepared, it became known that the sand had not set off for its intended purpose. After testing the vibrator of the CHIMRA instrument, a small object was found near the rover, which most likely fell off of it. Therefore, all further research work is suspended until NASA assesses the degree of loss. ( More on this )
In order to determine the functionality of the Chem Cam, the first Martian target named “Stone No. 165” was chosen.
Then it was renamed to Coronation and the results of the study were published under that name.
Without moving, Curiosity tested the Russian DAN device, assessing the hydrogen content in the soil beneath it,
then checked the REMS climate sensors
Chem Cam fired a series of shots at a section of the ground that was exposed by the impact of the jet stream of the landing Sky Crane. As it became known later, this place was called Goulburn.
But the results of its NASA did not bother to tell.
After the first demonstration studies, MSL operators no longer pamper Internet users with detailed gifts. Even when the next device was tested - APXS scientists limited themselves to commenting that during the test "very accurate peaks were obtained, as when tested under ideal conditions."
Therefore, it remained only to follow the photo shoots regularly sent from Mars, and to assume that this time NASA was interested in one or another sample, to which Curiosity paid special attention.
Thus, it was noticed that the rover was eyeing a crack in the ground.
Later it became known that this place was named Link. It became one of the three locations of rounded pebbles, and proof of the activity of water on the surface of Mars.
The Hottah site also seemed interesting not only to NASA, but also to ordinary Internet users. True, people far from science, and with good imagination, this place seemed proof of the existence on Mars of roboids - underground monsters from the series of films "Earth quake".
Indeed, it seems as if something had jumped out of the ground, and did not fall into it from the sky. Then NASA still explained that this was a sign of a meteorite fall.
The sections of Goulburn, Link and Hottah were later made public as evidence of a pre-existing stream that dipped pebbles in a way that no other science-known process could.
True, there were no traces of the channel of the stream itself either from the surface or from space, so NASA did not exclude the possibility that all this pebble was brought from somewhere in the mudflow mountains.
But all the media ignored such subtleties, pleased the world with headlines: “ Curiosity found the stream ”
The next find excited many.
The first frames transmitted by Curiosity showed a pyramidal stone. The unusually straight lines of its faces, the right angle observed at the base, and the observation that the stone simply lies on the ground, as if it had been specially laid in the path of the rover, were also surprising. Particularly impressionable were immediately discerned on its faces hieroglyphs and hollowed out “eyes”.
Contrary to the NASA hiding stereotype, experts detained the rover by the stone for three days. During this time, the Mast Cam cameras shot it in the most detailed way.
And for the first time, the camera on the MAHLI manipulator was tested in practice
The chemical composition of the stone, named in memory of one of NASA engineers Jake Matijevic, was studied using a Chem Cam laser and irradiated with alpha rays from the APXS (Alpha-Particle X-ray Spectrometer). Thanks to a double study, it was possible to evaluate the quality of analysis of each instrument, but NASA modestly kept the results with itself.
But even the photos destroyed any hopes for the man-made shape of the stone. The
published Curiosity route map showed that the rover purposefully moved towards it for two days from 41 to 43 sols, which explains the “unexpectedness” of the appearance of the stone right on the way.
Finally, after delays and over four hundred meters of the journey, the rover approached the previously announced goal - the Glenelg point.
Here he made a detailed panorama of the area.The
full format of the panorama here
and his attention was attracted by a noticeable outcrop of
stones.Only one target was chosen, named Bathurst Inlet (with the exception of names like Bradbury Landing and Jake Matijevic, NASA takes the names from Canadian place names).
She was also carefully examined by the MAHLI camera. The
bare side of the stone suggests that Curiosity used the DRT device, which consists of two brushes on the rotor.
His task is precisely to clean the samples from dust, for the convenience of studying cameras and APXS. Previous tests showed that dust is not a hindrance for the Chem Cam - the laser simply evaporates it with the first pulses, and a further series of rays already shows the chemical composition of the sample.
After walking a few meters, the rover lingered at a small sand spit, outlined by the wind behind a group of stones.
Here the sand was photographed in close-up.
Shot by a laser. A
test was made with the “foot”.
And the result was photographed again
(just don’t ask why the sand stuck if it’s -75 C and it can’t be wet. I don’t want to explain cement and flour)
Finally, the rover decided to move to a new level of relations with this sand and with Mars - he scooped up the first handful of sand to put it in his laboratory gut.
While this text was being prepared, it became known that the sand had not set off for its intended purpose. After testing the vibrator of the CHIMRA instrument, a small object was found near the rover, which most likely fell off of it. Therefore, all further research work is suspended until NASA assesses the degree of loss. ( More on this )