Curiosity: the high spec behind Nasa’s ‘robotic geologist’
Nasa’s Curiosity rover was built using the most complex robotic spaceflight technology. Science Editor Tom Clarke explains the spec from super-high resolution cameras to James Bond-esque laser beams.
Curiosity‘s full name is the Mars Science Laboratory – and it’s called that for a reason. It is essentially a robotic geologist with all the tools a human counterpart could ever want to take to our nearest planetary neighbour.
The big question about Mars is whether life ever existed there and if so, what it looked like. However, unlike some previous missions, Curiosity’s primary goal is not to look for life on Mars. Its rover predecessors – Spirit and Opportunity – were the first to confirm that water was once present on the red planet.
Like any good scientist Curiosity is building methodically on their previous work. It is designed to answer the question: were conditions on Mars ever suitable for life? And to help it do so it is equipped with five key instruments.
MastCam: A pair of super-high resolution cameras that can take stereo still or video images will give scientists – and the rest of us – the best images of Mars we’ve ever seen before. Raised above the rover on a telescopic arm it will act as the robot’s eyes and be used to select targets to study.
Sample Analysis at Mars: A catch-all name for several instruments on a robotic arm designed to probe every detail of the Martian surface. A number tools called spectrometers will analyse the elements that make up the Martian surface by bombarding them with tiny blasts of radioactive particles or light. A drill on the arm will be able to grind rocks into powder to expose traces of past life that may be hidden within.
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI): Like a geologist’s magnifying glass MAHLI is slung below the rover on the robotic arm and can take microscopic images of rocks and soil on Mars to compare their structure to rocks back on Earth.
Chemistry and Camera complex (ChemCam): Without doubt, this is the most James Bond of all the rover’s tools. ChemCam fires a laser at objects up to seven metres away. The attached camera then monitors the vapourised rocks to analyse their chemistry.
Radiation Assessment Detector: One of the few instruments with its eye on the future, rather than the geological past, this will anaylse how much radiation bombards the surface of Mars. Before manned missions ever go to Mars, scientists need a clear picture of just how much radiation astronauts will be exposed to on the surface of the planet.
The stated aim of the rover is to look for whether life-friendly conditions ever existed on Mars. But many of its instruments could also detect tantalising signs of life itself – if it was ever there. For example, rocks composed of long-dead carbon-based animals like chalk and limestone on Earth.