![]() The centennial was yet another reason to celebrate, after a flawless landing and a year of nearly perfect operations, he said.Īfter the rover landed, Farmer said it underwent many exercises to ensure it was fully functional. “One hundred years after the process was invented we got the first X-ray Diffraction patterns back from Mars," Farmer said. The first results from CheMin have come during the 100 th anniversary of X-ray diffraction's first use as a method, an exciting milestone for the team and all who routinely use this method to analyze the mineral make-up of samples. The CheMin X-ray Diffraction experiment marks the first time X-rays have been used to learn what minerals are present on the surface of another planet. " CheMin is trying to find minerals that tell us that there were environments present that could have sustained life." “Life needs liquid water, energy sources and carbon compounds that can be turned into something like microbes,” Farmer said. The team then uses this history to tell if Mars could have ever supported life. These minerals carry information about the geological processes that formed the samples, giving information about the early history of Mars. Curiosity’s CheMin instruments use X-rays to interrogate powdered samples of rock and soils to reveal what they contain. Farmer is part of a team involved with the rover’s chemistry and mineralogy experiment, also known as CheMin. ![]()
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