Rocknest on Mars
One hundred yards before its destination, Glenelg, Mars Rover Curiosity scoops samples of rock and soil above and below Mars’ surface for two weeks of instrument cleaning and calibrating. Curiosity must “rinse and spit” to rid its instruments of Earth residue. In a nest littered with rocks, appropriately named “Rocknest,” the rover will scoop four times the ordinary Mars material in preparation for samples at Glenelg. According to NASA, “The end of the rover’s 220-pound arm will shake ‘at a nice tooth-rattling vibration level’ for eight hours, like a Martian martini mixer gone mad. That heavy shaking will vibrate the fine dust grains through the rover chemical testing system to cleanse it of unwanted residual Earth grease.” Before Curiosity can scoop material, it must analyze the grain-size distribution and tread the surface with its wheel to expose new material. It will be two weeks before the rover scoops its first analytical sample, or sample number three (the first two are for cleansing) and even more time to analyze the sample composition. The CheMin instrument will identify minerals and the SAM instrument will identify chemical ingredients in sample three and four.
References
Larlham, Chuck. “NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity—Welcome To “Rocknest” Where Real Science Begins.” Technology.gather.com. Gather.com, 7 Oct 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012.
Hubbard, Amy. “Curiosity to scoop up Martian soil: First, it must rinse and spit.” LA Times. LA Times, 5 Oct 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012.
Fascinating piece Tina, nice follow-up!
“Earth grease” that’s a delicate way of describing it. Very interesting.
Makes Earth sound like a malign object. At least we people survive on that “Earth grease.” On Earth, it’s perfectly benign, but carried to Mars, it affects Curiosity’s delicate instruments.
Tina
Curiosity is a delicate machine with all its ton of weight.
Yup. Some of the heaviest things are the most delicate. These delicate things tend to be very intricate.
Tina