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MSL To Receive A New Carbon-Sniffing Experiment |
 Jan 6 2010, 09:49 PM
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 Member  Group: Members Posts: 540 Joined: 25-October 05 From: California Member No.: 535  |
NASA's SUV-sized Mars rover now has the ability to check for possible ingredients or signatures of life. The U.S. space agency recently approved a new instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) that can closely study carbon-containing compounds, if any show up in the dozens of planned soil and rock samples.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2...ngredients-life And check out this hilarious article, which talks about the same experiment: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/06/msl_sam_enhancement/ "Nuclear-powered robot laser tank"... "Planet-prowlers"... The author for some odd reason refuses to use the word "rover" more than once in this article. 
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Jan 6 2010, 10:51 PM
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Errr - SAM has been on the MSL instrument list since day 1. Almost belongs in the bad reporting thread. It's just a cunning augmentation to that instrument.
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Jan 6 2010, 11:16 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1599 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 6 2010, 06:51 PM)  Almost belongs in the bad reporting thread. As pithy as the Register article is-- and they're always pithy-- it does make it clear that they're just adding new goop to an old instrument. I did read this thread title and think a few unprintable things about rescoping, though. |
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Jan 6 2010, 11:32 PM
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8791 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Yeah, I was a bit taken aback by the thread title as well, Steve...visions of a launch slip careened around my head, momentarily!
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jan 7 2010, 04:44 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 118 Joined: 18-November 07 Member No.: 3964 |
There's also a link in vjakne's blog: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/t...eakthrough.html
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Jan 7 2010, 06:46 PM
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 267 Joined: 5-February 06 Member No.: 675 |
The Goddard release says: "Equipped with a gas chromatograph, a quadruple mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer, SAM will carry out...."
I presume that should be "quadrupole mass spectrometer...."  Steve M |
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Jan 8 2010, 02:38 PM
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 Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 30 Joined: 12-June 07 Member No.: 2392 |
I have heard that the levels of perchlorate found by Phoenix, if present elsewhere on Mars, could pose a problem for organics detection experiments because (only) WHEN IT IS HEATED the perchlorate becomes reactive enough to destroy the organic compounds. Does this new twist on the SAM experiment on MSL take that into account?
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