[meteorite-list] APL-Built Mineral-Mapping Imager Begins Mission at Mars

[Ron Baalke]

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Laurel, Maryland

Media Contact: Michael Buckley
(240) 228-7536 or (443) 778-7536
michael.buckley at jhuapl.edu 

September 27, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APL-BUILT MINERAL-MAPPING IMAGER BEGINS MISSION AT MARS
With Cover Removed, CRISM Set to Take First Images

The most powerful mineral-mapper ever sent to Mars has 
opened its protective cover and is about to begin its 
search for hints of past water on the red planet.

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars 
(CRISM), designed and built by the Johns Hopkins 
University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is 
one of six science instruments aboard NASA's Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter. CRISM's spring-loaded cover had 
been closed since the orbiter's launch in August 2005, 
protecting the imager's sensitive telescope optics from 
fuel residue and heat as the spacecraft eased into orbit 
around Mars. Today, a day after turning on CRISM's power 
and putting the device through a series of performance 
tests, operators opened the cover and verified that it 
had deployed properly.

"Everything went smoothly and our team is looking forward 
to our first images later this week," says Dr. Scott 
Murchie, CRISM principal investigator from the Applied 
Physics Laboratory (APL).

CRISM will look for areas that were wet long enough to 
leave a mineral signature on the surface, searching for 
the spectral traces of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits, 
and mapping the geology, composition, and stratigraphy of 
surface features. The imager will map areas on the 
Martian surface as small as 60 feet (about 18 meters) 
across, with the orbiter at its average altitude of 
about 190 miles (300 kilometers).

Offering greater capability to map spectral variations 
than any similar instrument sent to another planet, CRISM 
will read 544 "colors" in reflected sunlight to detect 
minerals in the surface. Its highest resolution is about 
20 times sharper than any previous look at Mars in near-
infrared wavelengths. By identifying sites most likely to 
have contained water, CRISM data will help determine the 
best potential landing sites for future Mars missions 
seeking fossils or even traces of life.

"It's been a long 13 months since launch, waiting 
throughout the aerobraking phase until we could safely 
expose the instrument optics," says Peter Bedini, the 
CRISM project manager from APL. "The time was well used, 
though, as we completed the development of a very 
sophisticated system for collecting, processing and 
distributing the data we'll soon be taking with CRISM."

APL, which has built more than 150 spacecraft instruments 
over the past four decades, led the effort to develop, 
integrate and test CRISM. CRISM's co-investigators are 
top planetary scientists from Brown University, Arizona 
State University, Space Science Institute, Washington 
University in St. Louis, University of Paris, the 
Applied Coherent Technology Corporation, and NASA's Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames 
Research Center and Johnson Space Center. Visit 
http://crism.jhuapl.edu for more information.

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is 
available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro 

The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a 
division of the California Institute of Technology, 
Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the 
prime contractor and built the MRO spacecraft.

The online version of this release is available at: 

http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2006/060927.asp