Earth preparation date: Friday, Sept. 13, 2024
Today, I require to discuss ChemCam, our laser and imaging instrument on the top of Curiosity’s mast. It among the instruments in the “head” that offers Curiosity that charming appear it were taking a look around tilting its head to the rocks at the rover’s wheels. On Monday, 19th August the ChemCam group at CNES in France prepared the 1 millionth shot and Curiosity performed it on the target Royce Lake on sol 4281 on Mars. Even as an Earth researcher utilized to truly huge numbers, this is a substantial number that took me a while to totally understand. 1 000 000 shots! Congratulations, ChemCam, our champ for getting chemistry from a range– and high-resolution images, too. If you are now curious how Curiosity’s ChemCam instrument works, here is the NASA reality sheet. And, obviously, the group is commemorating, which is revealed by those 2 news release, one from CNES in France and one from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the 2 organizations who worked together to establish and construct ChemCam and are now running the instrument for over 12 years! And the PI, Dr Nina Lanza from Los Alamos notifies me that the very first turning point– 10000 shots was reached as early as Sol 42, which was the sol the DAN instrument utilized its active mode for the very first time. Before I am getting melancholic, let’s talk about today’s strategy!
The drive ended relatively high up in the surface, which implies we see a great deal of the fascinating functions in the channel and usually around us. We are on an area a human hiker would most likely put the knapsack down, take the water bottle out and sit down with a treat to delight in the view from a good high point in the landscape. Well, no such satisfaction for Curiosity– and I am quite sure sugar, which we people enjoy a lot, would not be valued by rover equipments anyhow. Let’s simply take in the views! Which keeps Mastcam hectic maximizing our existing viewpoint. We have a surface with great deals of range in front of us, obstructs, stones, flatter locations and the walls are layered, stunning geology. In general there are 11 Mastcam observations in the strategy amounting to practically 100 specific frames, not counting those taken in the context of climatic observations, which are naturally likewise in the strategy. The greatest mosaics are on the targets “Western Deposit,” “Balloon Dome,” and “Coral Meadow.” Some smaller sized paperwork images are on the targets “Wales Lake,” “Gnat Meadow,” and “Pig Chute.”
ChemCam didn’t have long to harp on its turning point, as it’s hectic once again today. Naturally, it will sign up with Mastcam in making the most of our viewpoint, taking 3 remote micro imager images on the landscape around us. LIBS chemistry examinations are targeting “Wales Lake,” “Gnat Meadow,” and “Pig Chute.” APXS is examining 2 targets,