[meteorite-list] Curiosity's Spectrometer Finishes Calibration-Target Reading

[Ron Baalke]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1342

Spectrometer Finishes Calibration-Target Reading
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 11, 2012

On Sol 35 of its mission on Mars (Sept. 10, 2012) Curiosity continued
activities for characterizing its arm and the tools on the arm. The
Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) completed a reading of the
chemical ingredients in the instrument's calibration target. Then the
arm moved the spectrometer away from the target and maneuvered to the
arm's "ready out" position
(http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16147). The Dynamic Albedo
of Neutrons (DAN) instrument, mounted near the rear of the rover, was
given commands for a nearly six-hour reading after the Mars-afternoon
communications pass by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. DAN is used to check
whether the ground under the rover holds hydrated minerals, which have
water molecules or water-related ions bound into the mineral's
crystalline structure.

Curiosity continues to work in good health. Sol 35, in Mars local mean
solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 6:35 a.m. Sept. 11, PDT.