A car-sized, six-wheeled

robot destined for gale

crater on mars.

To see if mars ever could have
supported small life forms called
microbes and if humans could
survive there someday.
Workhorse imaging tool. It will capture
high-resolution color pictures and video of
the Martian landscape
MAHLI will function much like a high-powered
magnifying glass, allowing Earthbound scientists
to get up-close looks at Martian rocks and soil.
The instrument will take color pictures of features
as tiny as 12.5 microns smaller than the width
of a human hair.
MARDI, a small camera located on
Curiosity's main body, will record video of
the rover's descent to the Martian surface
(which will be accomplished with the help
of a hovering, rocket-powered sky crane).
SAM is the heart of Curiosity; at 83 pounds
(38 kilograms), it makes up about half of the
rover's science payload.
THREE SEPARATE INSTRUMENTS:
1. Mass spectrometer
2. Gas chromatograph
3. Laser spectrometer
This instrument will Fire Laser at
Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9
meters) away and analyze the
composition of the vaporized bits.
APXS, which sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will
measure the abundances of various chemical
elements in Martian rocks and dirt.
DAN, located near the back of Curiosity's main body,
will help the rover search for ice and water-logged
minerals beneath the Martian surface.
The toaster-size RAD is designed specifically to help
prepare for future human exploration of Mars. The
instrument will measure and identify high-energy
radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-
moving protons to gamma rays.
This tool, which sits partway up Curiosity's mast, is a
Martian weather station. REMS will measure
atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and
direction, air temperature, ground temperature and
ultraviolet radiation.
MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments,
since it's built into the heat shield that will protect
the rover on its descent through the martian
atmosphere. But it's worth a few words here.

Carries a drill, a brush to remove dust,
a soil scoop, a camera for close-up views,
and two science tools to understand if Mars
ever had habitable conditions for microbial life.

HAND

-MAHLI
-APXS
-Sample Processing & Handling
(SA/PaH) subsystem
Powder Acquisition Drill System
(PADS)
Dust Removal Tool (DRT)
Collection and Handling for in-situ
Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA)
Names of Tools on the Turret:
The rover hopes to find two things:
1) minerals altered in water, which is
necessary to life as we know it.

2) signs of organics, the chemical building
blocks of life. That will help explain if Mars
could have been a habitat in the past for
small life forms called microbes.
Main Function:

Protect the Computer, Electronic, and
Instrument Systems
Components: bottom and sides are
the frame of the chassis; top is the
rover equipment deck (its "back")
The rover's "back" (the rover equipment deck)
carries the rover's communications antennas
("ears and mouth") along with other key tools.
The power source is the main feature,
giving electrical power to allow the rover to
perform all of its functions.


Main Function:

Provide power to the rover
Location: At side of the rover
Size: 25 inches (64 centimeters) in
diameter by 26 inches (66
centimeters) long
Weight: about 99 pounds (45
kilograms)
"spare brain"
This main control loop essentially keeps the rover
"alive" by constantly checking itself to ensure that
it is both able to communicate throughout the
surface mission and that it remains thermally
stable (not too hot or too cold) at all times.
Processor:
radiation-hardened central processor with
PowerPC 750 Architecture: a BAE RAD 750
operates at up to 200 megahertz speed, 10
times the speed in Mars rovers Spirit and
Opportunity's computers

Memory:
2 gigabytes of flash memory (~8 times as much as
Spirit or Opportunity)
256 megabytes of dynamic random access memory
256 kilobytes of electrically erasable programmable
read-only memory
Curiosity's "neck and head" (mast)
carries seven of Curiosity's
seventeen camera "eyes."
Main Function: to give the rover a human-
scale view through cameras and to allow it
remote-sensing capabilities
Height: about 7 feet from the ground