Curiosity Mars rover poised for first ‘hands-on’ geology
More than half the way to its first major scientific destination, the Curiosity Mars rover will pause a few days to perform the mission’s first hands-on geology, using instruments on the vehicle’s robot arm to photograph and chemically assess an intriguing pyramid-shaped rock, project managers said Wednesday.
Data from the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, or APXS, will be compared with remote sensing data from another instrument known as Chemcam that uses a powerful laser to vaporize tiny sections of a target’s surface. Debris from the laser strike is measured remotely to…
Continued here: Curiosity Mars rover poised for first ‘hands-on’ geology
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