[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Curiosity Uses Arm Camera at Night

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:23:06 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201301241723.r0OHN6ML012984_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-032

Mars Rover Curiosity Uses Arm Camera at Night
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 23, 2013

    * MAHLI's First Night Imaging of Martian Rock, White Lighting <#1>
    * MAHLI's First Night Imaging of Martian Rock Under Ultraviolet
      Lighting <#2>
    * First Night Image of MAHLI Calibration Target in White Lighting <#3>
    * First Night Image of MAHLI Calibration Target Under Ultraviolet
      Lights <#4>

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has for the first time
used the camera on its arm to take photos at night, illuminated by white
lights and ultraviolet lights on the instrument.

Scientists used the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument for
a close-up nighttime look at a rock target called "Sayunei," in an area
where Curiosity's front-left wheel had scuffed the rock to provide
fresh, dust-free materials to examine. The site is near where the rover
team plans to begin using Curiosity to drill into a rock in coming
weeks. The images of the rock Sayunei and of MAHLI's calibration target
were taken on Jan. 22 (PST) and received on Earth Jan. 23.

The MAHLI, an adjustable-focus color camera, includes its own LED
(light-emitting diode) illumination sources. Images of Sayunei taken
with white-LED illumination and with illumination by ultraviolet LEDs
are available online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16711 and
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16712 .

"The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination
was to look for fluorescent minerals," said MAHLI Principal Investigator
Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "These data just
arrived this morning. The science team is still assessing the
observations. If something looked green, yellow, orange or red under the
ultraviolet illumination, that'd be a more clear-cut indicator of
fluorescence."

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity to investigate
whether the study area within Gale Crater has offered environmental
conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science
Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For more information about the mission, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

Follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-032
Received on Thu 24 Jan 2013 12:23:06 PM PST