Science NIE ACTIVITY Science Matters!

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MATTERS!
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Science Center.
For more information, visit www.cctcase.org
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MARS LANDER
written by, Dr. Meg Schwamb,
WORDS TO KNOW
• Mass spectrometer - instrument used to study the
Planetary Scientist chemical composition of materials by separating
After a daring landing on August 6th involving parachutes and a sky crane, NASA's Curiosity rover elements and compounds by mass for identification
is safely on the surface of Mars. The 900-kg, Plutonium-powered rover is about the size of a • Plutonium - radioactive element
Mini-Cooper car and is the largest and heaviest robot ever sent to explore the Red Planet.
• Sky crane - the descent stage that lowered the rover
Curiosity is a mobile robotic geologist that for the next 90 sols (and hopefully longer) will study the
chemical composition and structure of the rocks and soil at its new home in Gale Crater. In the center by tether down to the Martian surface
of Gale Crater is a mountain, Mount Sharp. Standing at 5.5km in height, Mount Sharp is taller than • Sol - a Martian day, which happens to
any mountain in the continental United States. The buried layers of bedrock at the bottom of Gale be 24.5 hours (half an hour longer than
Crater have been uplifted and exposed on the surface of Mount Sharp, providing a way of reading the
history of the Mars's past climate and geology. The ordering of different strata, the types of rocks, and a day on the Earth)
their chemical composition will tell us about the • Strata - rock layers
conditions in Gale Crater when the rocks were first
forming, such as the presence of water or lava.
• Vaporize - to turn into a gas
The 6-wheeled rover will slowly make its
climb up Mount Sharp in the next weeks and
months, sampling the rocks and soil on its way.
SKILLS AND
Curiosity is armed with a suite of instruments
to study the makeup of rock outcrops and soil.
KNOWLEDGE
Curiosity will use its 7-ft robotic arm to dig To be a planetary scientist you will need a
up soil and move rock samples onto the other PhD. I spent four years as an undergraduate at
scientific instruments on board, including a
mass spectrometer. The base of the arm is a university focusing on classes in mathematics,
like a Swiss Army Knife with: a drill to grind away the rock surface, a brush to remove the Martian physics, and astronomy. I then spent four years in graduate school to
dust, a microscopic camera to view up close the structure of the rock's minerals, and a scoop to earn my PhD, where I took classes in geology, astronomy, and physics.
dig up soil. The rover also has a laser eye on the top of its mast that Curiosity will aim at rocks to
Much of my time is spent using computers to analyze observations and
vaporize their surfaces and then measure the properties and chemical makeup of the molecules present
in the gas. data gathered, so a good knowledge of computer programming can be
Although Curiosity is the most sophisticated machine we’ve sent to Mars, it won’t decide on its own a useful skill for a planetary scientist.
what rocks to sample. NASA geologists and planetary scientists will tell Curiosity what to do, but the
partnership between man and machine is allowing us to a get glimpse of the Red Planet like we’ve never
had before.

MEET THE SCIENTIST

Dr. Meg Schwamb, Planetary Scientist
I'm a National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics and
the Physics Department at Yale University. Ever since I've been a little
girl I've been fascinated with the solar system and the night sky. I study
small bodies like Pluto in the outer solar system and search for planets
Sites To Visit
around other stars. While not observing, I can be found hanging out with • NASA 3-D Curiosity IPhone/IPad app -http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spacecraft-3d/
my black cat Stella and baking. id541089908?mt=8
• NASA Mars Exploration Program http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
• NASA Mars Blog - http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/blogs/

Next Page: September 28 • Curiosity's landing as viewed from the Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
http://mars.jpl.nasa. gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=62