NASA Curiosity Rover Instruments Explained briefly with Pic

[TokWW]

Instruments

The figure below shows the location of the ten science instruments on the rover. There are four categories of instruments: the remote sensing instruments Mastcam (Mast Camera) and ChemCam (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Chemistry and Microimaging) located on the remote sensing mast; the contact science instruments APXS (Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer) and MAHLI (Mars Hand Lens Imager) located on the end of the robotic arm; the analytical laboratory instruments CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) located inside the rover body; and the environmental instruments RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector), DAN (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons), REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station), and MARDI (Mars Descent Imager).



From here...

http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/Instruments/

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[TokWW]

There is a site here displaying the current weather:

http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/marsweather.html

See attached picture...current weather +- 1 hour of that on Mars...   The Spanish team have a suite of instruments on the Mars Scientific Laboratory - MSL - the Curiosity Rover.

[David]

7 hPa pressure.... not much of an atmosphere eh

[TokWW]

Yes, about 1/400th of ours, but the REMS wind instrument is reading I think up to 20m/s I thought I saw one Sol recently.  I might be wrong - LOL!  But the humidity is interesting I find - at 7%.

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