page_title: Mars Science Laboratory
section_title: Instruments
hierarchical_section_title: Mars Science Laboratory / Specifications / Rover / Instruments
caption_attribution_description: English: This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, Mount Sharp. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak Mount Sharp at a height of about 3.4 miles, taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens.
context_page_description: Mars Science Laboratory is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for a human mission to Mars. The rover carries a variety of scientific instruments designed by an international team.
context_section_description: The general analysis strategy begins with high resolution cameras to look for features of interest. If a particular surface is of interest, Curiosity can vaporize a small portion of it with an infrared laser and examine the resulting spectra signature to query the rock's elemental composition. If that signature intrigues, the rover will use its long arm to swing over a microscope and an X-ray spectrometer to take a closer look. If the specimen warrants further analysis, Curiosity can drill into the boulder and deliver a powdered sample to either the SAM or the CheMin analytical laboratories inside the rover.
  Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS): This device can irradiate samples with alpha particles and map the spectra of X-rays that are re-emitted for determining the elemental composition of samples.
  CheMin: CheMin is short for 'Chemistry and Mineralogy', and it is an X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence analyzer. It will identify and quantify the minerals present in rocks and soil and thereby assess the involvement of water in their formation, deposition, or alteration. In addition, CheMin data will be useful in the search for potential mineral biosignatures, energy sources for life or indicators for past habitable environments.
  Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM): The SAM instrument suite will analyze organics and gases from both atmospheric and solid samples. This include oxygen and carbon isotope ratios in carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) in the atmosphere of Mars in order to distinguish between their geochemical or biological origin.
  Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD): This instrument was the first of ten MSL instruments to be turned on. Both en route and on the planet's surface, it will characterize the broad spectrum of radiation encountered in the Martian environment. Turned on after launch, it recorded several radiation spikes caused by the Sun. On May 31, 2013, NASA scientists reported that a possible human mission to Mars may involve a great radiation risk based on the amount of energetic particle radiation detected by the RAD on the Mars Science Laboratory while traveling from the Earth to Mars in 2011–2012.
  Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN): A pulsed neutron source and detector for measuring hydrogen or ice and water at or near the Martian surface. On August 18, 2012 (sol 12) the Russian science instrument, DAN, was turned on, marking the success of a Russian-American collaboration on the surface of Mars and the first working Russian science instrument on the Martian surface since Mars 3 stopped transmitting over forty years ago. The instrument is designed to detect subsurface water.
  Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS): Meteorological package and an ultraviolet sensor provided by Spain and Finland. It measures humidity, pressure, temperatures, wind speeds, and ultraviolet radiation.
  Cameras: Curiosity has seventeen cameras overall. 12 engineering cameras (Hazcams and Navcams) and five science cameras. MAHLI, MARDI, and MastCam cameras were developed by Malin Space Science Systems and they all share common design components, such as on-board electronic imaging processing boxes, 1600×1200 CCDs, and a RGB Bayer pattern filter.
  MastCam: This system provides multiple spectra and true-color imaging with two cameras.
  Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI): This system consists of a camera mounted to a robotic arm on the rover, used to acquire microscopic images of rock and soil. It has white and ultraviolet LEDs for illumination.
  ChemCam: Designed by Roger Wiens  is a system of remote sensing instruments used to erode the Martian surface up to 10 meters away and measure the different components that make up the land. The payload includes the first laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system to be used for planetary science, and Curiosity's fifth science camera, the remote micro-imager (RMI). The RMI provides black-and-white images at 1024×1024 resolution in a 0.02 radian (1.1-degree) field of view.  This is approximately equivalent to a 1500 mm lens on a 35 mm camera.
  Mars Descent Imager (MARDI): D
caption: The shadow of Curiosity and Aeolis Mons ("Mount Sharp")
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