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Course: NASA > Unit 3
Lesson 3: Curiosity rover: mission briefing- Why go to Mars?
- Seeking signs of habitability
- Where to look?
- Destination: Gale crater
- Navigation
- Rover vision
- ChemCam
- Surface and atmospheric studies
- Curiosity's arm
- Curiosity's hand
- Chemistry and mineralogy
- SAM Instruments
- Preparing for landing
- Entry, descent & landing
- MSL Brief
- Curiosity landing simulation
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ChemCam
Created by NASA.
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- Does Curiosity collect samples and bring them back to earth, or just provide photos??(18 votes)
- It's doubtful that Curiosity will ever return to Earth due to the cost, so what it does is break down chemicals, analyze them, detect their composition, and take photos. It does collect samples, but it does all the analyzing in its own. It simply sends the data back to Earth. :)(19 votes)
- Why is camera called a ChemCam?(8 votes)
- At4:19a graph depicts one of 3 ChemCam spectral ranges. Why are some of the elements shown (Iron, Silicon, Magnesium, & Titanium) associated with more than one wave length while others (Zirconium, Aluminum, & Calcium) are only associated with one wave length? Do Zirconium, Aluminum, & Calcium have additional wave lengths on the other ChemCam spectral ranges?(4 votes)
- Each element has a unique set of wavelengths. In some cases certain elements have very few wavelengths associated with them.(12 votes)
- at2:54, it says that it takes about as much power as a million lightbulbs to power the laser how will it bring enough power for that to work?(5 votes)
- Curiosity is powered by nuclear decay of plutonium. The heat generated by the decay heats thermocouples, which generate electricity. They did it this way to provide plenty of power for the instruments on board, and so that they didnt have to worry as much about the problems of solar panels, martian winter, and martian dust.(3 votes)
- is there more than one chemcam on curiosity(3 votes)
- if a science rover takes it's picture with it's camara,how do we not see the arm that takes the picture?(2 votes)
- Does Curiosity collect samples and bring them back to earth?(2 votes)
- This laser on the rover. could the NASA have put it on there for two reasons? because it seems like the rover would use the laser as a weapon in case something was found that tried to mess with it! I'm just saying that's a dangerous weapon in the hands of the government! :( :( :((2 votes)
- could i create a copy of it?(1 vote)
- Yes. If you have a lot of extra money to spend(3 votes)
- So it's basically a heat ray that also scans and takes pictures.(1 vote)