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NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the patch of rock cleaned by the first use of the rover's wire-bristle brush on Jan. 6.
NASA's Curiosity rover used the wire-bristle brush on the end of its 7-foot-long robotic arm for the first time over the weekend, to sweep the dust off a patch of rock wide enough to put a soda can on.
Sunday's use of the motorized Dust Removal Tool, or DRT, marks yet another first for the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, which began operations on the Red Planet with Curiosity's landing last August. The mission team selected an easy target for the tryout: a flat patch of rock known as "Ekwir_1" in the Yellowknife Bay area of Mars' Gale Crater, where Curiosity has been spending the past few weeks.
"We wanted to be sure we had an optimal target for the first use," Diana Trujillo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the mission's activity lead for the DRT, explained in today's status report. "We need to place the instrument within less than half an inch of the target without putting the hardware at risk. We needed a flat target, one that wasn't rough, one that was covered with dust. The results certainly look good."
The area cleaned by the DRT measured about 1.85 inches by 2.44 inches (47 by 62 millimeters). In addition to the brush, the end of Curiosity's robotic arm is equipped with a percussive drill, a close-up camera known as the Mars Hand Lens Imager, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer and a dirt scooper.
The rover team is evaluating several rocks in the area as potential targets for the first use of the drill sometime in the next few weeks. Brushing off potential targets will be part of the preparation for that drilling operation.
The primary aim of Curiosity's two-year mission is to sample rocks, soil and the atmosphere at Mars' Gale Crater to determine whether the chemical requirements for life could have been present there billions of years ago.
More about Curiosity's mission:
- Tiny 'Martian flower' stirs up some buzz
- Curiosity spends the holidays at 'Grandma's House'
- Rover finds organic compounds, but are they from Mars?
- Cosmic Log archive on Curiosity's Mars mission
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Can I get a rover like that to sweep my porch ?
Just curious .
My thoughts exactly ... one Coke can-sized spot at a time...
And leave marks along the way.
On the other hand, perhaps NASA should consider sending a Roomba to Mars...
Let's take a cactus to plant next time.
If you have a spare $2.5 billion, I'm sure they could build you one...
Great, we're barely there a few months, and the Martians already have us on clean up duty!
Well, we are the immigrants on Mars, and that's the jobs we get.
If we are going to clean Mars, should we not build something more like WALL*E? Or Rosie?
'Eva' was quite trigger happy, and capable of Violence. She did not put up with any nonsense, until completely convinced of Wall E's intentions.
Young women away from home attending college, should take note. 'Eva', capable of deadly self defense, was a Survivor. Rover, though an accomplished technophile, is a neophyte. I would surely hope he stays safe and healthy, so far from home, without an 'Eva' to protect him. :>)
It seems to have left a circular score on the rock. This might cause rover material to rub off onto the rock surfaces and could possibly foul a later laser measurement.
That's what wire brushes do, reterry. Perhaps they wanted this effect...they're pretty smart people.
need more Lemon Pledge please...........
I agree, as evidenced by the fact that we are talking about a machine on Mars. controlled from Earth!
Makes me wish that after its main and secondary missions/tasks are over, they'd use its left over battery life to have it draw some art on the surface. How cool would that be? Human (sort of) made art on another planet...
The rover is powered by an advanced nuclear system called the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. I think it will have power for a while to come.
a big ole smiley face...with the caption...hav'a nice day...or...hav'a a mar's was us day...
whoopie doo ...
Sorry this isn't stimulating enough for you, maybe you can entertain us with pictures of another planet you took with your rover.
They should use compressed atmosphere, and use air pressure to clean stuff. No chance of contamination or transfer. And if theres enough pressure, its every bit as effective as a wire brush. Maybe more so. Good for blowing the dust off things too. And a pump can recharge an air tank repeatedly, as long as theres power to run the pump. A brush can foul, break, wear out, etc.
See reply 2.1
Rex keeps on trying for relevance. "That's what wire brushes do", indeed. At risk of being abrasive I would only point out that perhaps the wire brush is misaligned so that its rim scores the rock. It is at best a minor point anyway.
Energy wise compressed air isn't very efficient, and compressors themselves tend to be fairly heavy.
Agreed, we'd have to have some massive solar panels to power a compressor here on Earth, and the thin atmosphere on Mars would be even worse.
However, I can imagine a robotic arm with a can of "canned air" spraying off the solar panels from time to time, though I'm not sure there's a Walmart on Mars for it to go buy more.
I think it would be cool to leave an empty Coke can there so that future aliens can get a better idea as to our national pastime, littering.
"Dust Removal Tool, or DRT". From now on I will be referring to my vacuum at home as the DRT.
Dang Alan. Did you fail your GED test again?
I must say that seeing any photo taken on another planet is pretty exciting..but you guys on the joy stick need to take it up a notch or two.
$2.5 B for a cleaning lady? NASA...want a better reference?! HA!
Who knew we (all tax payers) were paying to clean and litter on Mars. Any why is NASA government funded again? You want to cut spending here you go, privitize it out to Branson, or at least sell sponsorship rights to plaster logos all over the equipment. What is the average tax payer american obtaining from this or any other NASA mission? Aluminum foil, but that came from the Roswell. :-) Congress, stop paying to litter space and other planets, it is bad enough we are littering on ours.
We obtained the knowledge for the box that your sitting in front of now idiot. Advancements in space helped to make our lives here on earth more pleasurable. Some of the things you use every day are a direct result of NASA.
I might suggest you take a look at the list and then ask those private manufactures of those products if it was worth it.
Space junk is one thing & yes we as a world need to address that, however planet junk, there is very little. I think the more we establish ourselves in space we will have private business that does nothing more than reclaim that junk. Look how close we are to private space travel now. It's just a matter of time.
The other thing Darren is that NASA consumes one tenth of one percent of the federal budget.
Oh...and one more thing...H. Hughes had Lockheed & Aerospace the govenment called it a monopoly and busted it down.
Wow! Can you imagine how long it's going to take that thing to clean the WHOLE PLANET!? Seeing this picture, I'll NEVER convince my wife to buy a summer home there! Too dirty!
I think CLR could clean off the lime deposits.
waste of money!
Trying to find the thumbs down button...
Furthur2010-(waste of money!)
Everything is relative.Einstein said that.Two people can look at the same thing, one can see beauty, the other junk, or incredible value, another a waste of money. So, why the differences? It really comes down to what one values in life.
Some people will spend their lives looking up at the sky, the birds in the trees, clouds and stars, wondering, in awe. Others keep their eyes fixed the ground. Hoping to spot lost change, counting any others loss their gain.There are folks who allow for their neighbors countering opinions, while certain contrary individuals spew hate if any don't agree. I have known souls whose minds leap when mankind steps into new realms in exploration or discoveries. While particular breeds decree men still be huddled by small campfires outside of caves. In the end, to each is given what they truly sought all the days of their existence.Some far richer and happier. While so many more miserable,nay a few far poorer and more so foolisher.Easily shown when they each speak.
Furthur2010
Everything IS relative.You get what you invest in.What you care about, take the time to get to know. Decide what is going to be important in your life.You can float about on life's whims, or plan and decide what focus and central principals and values you will make important in your life. It's okay if you don't like space. So, don't read the article or comment on it. Move on....just don't waste other people time
Was landing on the moon a waste of money. Its an exercise of power. You must now just be understanding the power of image. It seemed riduclous to me to that image is priceless. But i have come to respect the power of image. America's image is something that needs to be stregthened and protected at every turn.
LawlessLuke: see my posting 11.1
Lookin' good. All systems normal, so far.
Uh, Curiosity? Uhh ya missed a spot.
Sorry, couldn't resist the feeble attempt at humor. Seriously though, kudos to the brains at Nasa for all the things they do and for the hundreds of life enhancing technologies and products that have come from their work through the decades
Looks like concrete in color. When you get the dirt off. I see an image in the clean spot like a holograph of a sphere.