Even on Mars, the Curiosity rover needs to wash its hands

By Georgina Torbet April 13, 2020

Here on Earth, we’re all taking care to wash our hands for at least 20 seconds. But cleanliness is not only important on this planet — it’s important for the Curiosity rover on Mars as well.

Curiosity is gathering samples from across the red planet as it travels up the massive Mount Sharp. The rover drills into the bedrock, scoops up bits of rock and soil, and then transfers this sample to one of its two analysis instruments on board: the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite, which analyzes the sample for the presence of organic compounds and gases, or the Chemical and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument, a spectrometer which measures the levels of minerals in the sample.

This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2727. — This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2727. NASA/JPL-Caltech

But the engineers controlling the rover need to be careful to ensure that each sample is not contaminated with material from any other sample. The Curiosity team explained how they achieve this while collecting a sample from the Edinburgh drill site in a blog post:

Recommended Videos

“Of course, the lack of water and soap prevents the rover from ‘washing,’ but we still have to make sure the rover’s instruments stay as clean as possible after touching a new surface. On Monday’s plan, we placed the rover’s arm over the drill tailings from our Edinburgh drill hole to study them with APXS [Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, a tool for measuring what chemical elements are present] and MAHLI [Mars Hand Lens Imager, one of Curiosity’s cameras].

In today’s plan, we’ll retract the arm from that position and stow it so we can drive away. During that process, we swing the turret back and forth to shake off and remove any bits of sand or dust that may have been clinging to APXS so when we next use it, APXS only measures materials at the new location and nothing that came with us from Edinburgh.”

With the latest drill site inspected, Curiosity will now move on to capturing more images of the dramatic Greenheugh Pediment where it is currently located. It will take a long-distance mosaic image of the area before taking a short drive to another patch of soil for its next round of study. As spring is just beginning on Mars, Curiosity will also be on the lookout for dust devils as these typically spike at this time of year.

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

Watch how the Perseverance rover drives autonomously across Mars

Perseverance illustration

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been trundling across the surface of Mars since arriving on the planet in spectacular fashion in February last year.

The six-wheeled, SUV-sized vehicle is currently on its way to the Jezero River Delta as it continues its search for evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet.

Space

Curiosity rover nopes out of region of sharp Mars rocks

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to survey these wind-sharpened rocks, called ventifacts, on March 15, 2022, the 3,415th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The team has informally described these patches of ventifacts as “gator-back” rocks because of their scaly appearance.

There are many obstacles for a little rover exploring Mars to deal with, from steep hills to deep ravines to dust which can obscure solar panels or get into mechanical components. Now, the Curiosity rover has one more challenge to add to that list: The densest region of sharp rocks that the rover's NASA drivers have ever seen.

The rocks, sharpened into vicious points by the Martian wind, were spotted blocking Curiosity's path in an area called the Greenheugh Pediment on March 18. The team decided they couldn't risk running Curiosity's wheels over the jagged rocks, especially since similar rocks had already damaged the wheels earlier in the mission in 2017. “It was obvious from Curiosity’s photos that this would not be good for our wheels,” said Megan Lin, Curiosity Project Manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “It would be slow going, and we wouldn’t have been able to implement rover-driving best practices.”

Space

NASA pushes its mega moon rocket test back to next week

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher.

After two false starts, NASA is hoping that the third time will be the charm for the wet dress rehearsal of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The enormous rocket which is intended to carry humans to the moon and, eventually, perhaps even to Mars, is undergoing the final major test before its launch -- a rehearsal in which the rocket is brought out to the launch pad, filled with fuel, and a countdown is started and recycled as it would be for an actual launch. The rocket won't leave the ground, but the rocket's systems are all powered on and this rehearsal checks that everything is ready for when it does actually launch.

The first test was scheduled for last weekend on Sunday, April 3, and went ahead despite weather including lightning that struck the towers around the rocket. The lightning towers are designed to absorb lightning for just such an occurrence, so no damage was done to the rocket. However, there was a problem with a fan safety system which meant the test had to be called off. NASA tried again the next day on Monday, April 4, but had to scrub for a second time due to a stuck valve.