[meteorite-list] APL-Built Mineral-Mapping Imager Begins Mission at Mars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Sep 27 18:36:13 2006
Message-ID: <200609272235.PAA13162_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Laurel, Maryland

Media Contact: Michael Buckley
(240) 228-7536 or (443) 778-7536
michael.buckley_at_jhuapl.edu

September 27, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APL-BUILT MINERAL-MAPPING IMAGER BEGINS MISSION AT MARS
With Cover Removed, CRISM Set to Take First Images

The most powerful mineral-mapper ever sent to Mars has
opened its protective cover and is about to begin its
search for hints of past water on the red planet.

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars
(CRISM), designed and built by the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is
one of six science instruments aboard NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter. CRISM's spring-loaded cover had
been closed since the orbiter's launch in August 2005,
protecting the imager's sensitive telescope optics from
fuel residue and heat as the spacecraft eased into orbit
around Mars. Today, a day after turning on CRISM's power
and putting the device through a series of performance
tests, operators opened the cover and verified that it
had deployed properly.

"Everything went smoothly and our team is looking forward
to our first images later this week," says Dr. Scott
Murchie, CRISM principal investigator from the Applied
Physics Laboratory (APL).

CRISM will look for areas that were wet long enough to
leave a mineral signature on the surface, searching for
the spectral traces of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits,
and mapping the geology, composition, and stratigraphy of
surface features. The imager will map areas on the
Martian surface as small as 60 feet (about 18 meters)
across, with the orbiter at its average altitude of
about 190 miles (300 kilometers).

Offering greater capability to map spectral variations
than any similar instrument sent to another planet, CRISM
will read 544 "colors" in reflected sunlight to detect
minerals in the surface. Its highest resolution is about
20 times sharper than any previous look at Mars in near-
infrared wavelengths. By identifying sites most likely to
have contained water, CRISM data will help determine the
best potential landing sites for future Mars missions
seeking fossils or even traces of life.

"It's been a long 13 months since launch, waiting
throughout the aerobraking phase until we could safely
expose the instrument optics," says Peter Bedini, the
CRISM project manager from APL. "The time was well used,
though, as we completed the development of a very
sophisticated system for collecting, processing and
distributing the data we'll soon be taking with CRISM."

APL, which has built more than 150 spacecraft instruments
over the past four decades, led the effort to develop,
integrate and test CRISM. CRISM's co-investigators are
top planetary scientists from Brown University, Arizona
State University, Space Science Institute, Washington
University in St. Louis, University of Paris, the
Applied Coherent Technology Corporation, and NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames
Research Center and Johnson Space Center. Visit
http://crism.jhuapl.edu for more information.

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is
available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro

The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the
prime contractor and built the MRO spacecraft.

The online version of this release is available at:

http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2006/060927.asp
Received on Wed 27 Sep 2006 06:35:43 PM PDT