I hint about the only person around it
doesn't have TV coverage of the things
that man got the black up now you're
gonna be getting a TV picture now
they'll yes we are getting a TV picture
one all
part
when nasa's mars science laboratory or
msl lands on Mars rover will have many
ambitious science goals named curiosity
the river will end in Gale Crater this
is an ideal spot to study the exposed
rock that offers a tantalizing clues
about Mars past one of the ten science
instruments that curiosity carries is a
unique analysis tool called chemin short
for chemistry and mineralogy about the
size of a large shoe box
this portable laboratory will accurately
define the mineral composition of
samples taken from the Martian soil and
rocks
join us as we made the team at NASA Ames
Research Center who developed the chemin
instrument as well as discover how this
technology is proven to be indispensable
right here on earth
yeah
to tell us more about one of the
instruments on the Mars Science
Laboratory i'm here with NASA geologists
David Blake he's the inventor and
principal investigator on the chemin
instrument David can you tell us more
about Kevin and what it will be doing on
MSL well Kevin is an x-ray diffraction
instrument and this is the first time
we've ever sent an instrument like that
in space and x-ray diffraction is the
gold standard for how to analyze
minerals on the earth in a large
laboratory so for the first time ever
we'll be able to definitively determine
what minerals are present rocks and by
knowing that we will understand the
history of the early Mars environment
gale crater is one of the oldest and
deepest craters on the surface of Mars
and we believe it has sentimental
article records that go back as far as
four billion years building with the B
and the significance of that is it on
the earth with plate tectonics we have
no settlements that are that old that we
can really look at and interpret this is
really the only way to look at a four
billion year old sediment and say how it
formed what the conditions were at that
time how is this different than Spirit
and Opportunity that have come before
well we're doing something similar to
what spirit and opportunity has done but
I'm much much larger scale Spirit and
Opportunity were kind of like feel
geologists they would go out with the
hand lens and hammer and and look at
rocks may be analyzed the surface of
Iraq but Mars Science Laboratory goes to
step further
we collect those rocks collect powders
and we have essentially a full-up
terrestrial laboratory inside the body
of mars science laboratory and that's
what's going to be different
how do you get a laboratory to fit on a
rover that's going to go to another
planet
okay well you have to make it small
that's one thing as small and and a lot
less math so a regular diffractometer
lab is about like double-wide
refrigerator-sized with lots of
complicated motions of the detector of
the sample and of the source we kind of
had a new idea where we actually vibrate
the sample with the tuning fork so that
the sample itself does all emotions and
then the machine doesn't have to so we
essentially went from a complicated big
machine with many moving parts to a
small simple machine with no moving
parts
what's the most exciting thing about Kim
and flying on MSL for you
I've been doing diffraction have been
working in this business for 35 years
and so
having this kind of come to fruition
finally is really exciting to me
to tell us more about this technology
we're meeting with Philippe stars and
who helped develop the chemin instrument
he is now the chief scientist students
you a division of Olympus that is
commercializing the technology sleep
what is x-ray diffraction is it similar
to regular x-ray imaging techniques
it's actually quite different x-ray
diffraction is a method for analyzing
crystalline materials every crystal
every type of crystal has a very unique
signature in x-ray diffraction crystals
are everywhere around us during the
Georgica materials but they're also in
materials such as metals or ceramics or
concrete or even the pharmaceutical
product so by using our instruments
we can identify the nature of the
crystals inside a inside example I can
take an example of not to material star
very much like it very much different
materials made of 100-percent of carbon
one is graphite and the other one is
diamond x-ray diffraction can tell the
difference between diamond and graphite
work traditional chemical advisors would
see carbon tell us how the chemin
instrument involved into a commercially
produced product i used to work with
david blake at NASA and we developed a
number of prototypes to demonstrate the
capability of the technology and in the
process of doing that we have a chance
to test our instruments in the field and
there was a first-time x-ray diffraction
was taken out of the lab seeing the
capability that judges could use on the
side was quite
revelation that there were a number of
commercial applications that could
derive from the technology and what
types of areas is being used in so we
reached our first product in 2007 is
called Terra and the terror is being
used by a number of scientists engineers
in very different fields such as an OG
obviously but also know the oil industry
for drilling in mining or even in the
pharmaceutical industry or museums how's
it been used in museum and the objective
was to have an instrument that could
analyze surface materials mostly
pigments in works of art such as
paintings and frescoes or sculptures and
non-destructively tara or incoming are
both destructive instrument you need to
sample and grind that sample which
obviously would be a problem when you
were analyzing a very expensive and rare
and work of art and what are some of the
more interesting works of art that
you've been able to see so that
instrument was taking into unique sites
such as a king tut's tomb or the
Acropolis in Athens what do you see is
the future of the cam and technology
what's unique about what we've created
for the least Mars project as well as
for the commercial spin-off is that
there's nothing in the world the
then what we've developed that allows
doing these analysis in the field and
almost instantly you get answers within
minutes of tens of minutes it reopens
new arises for some applications whether
their scientific or industrial so
there's a lot of potential for the
technique that was developed for Kevin
thanks for joining us and meet us again
on our next destination innovation
for more information about the chemin
instrument please visit nasa.gov slash
aims
yeah
yeah
history but the only person around it
doesn't have TV coverage of the face it
man you got the black up now and you can
feel it
getting a TV picture I ever fail yet we
are getting a
and
I want all
by travelpod member
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