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Preparing Samples on Mars

Feb. 20, 2013
This figure shows the location of CHIMRA on the turret of NASA's Curiosity rover, together with a cutaway view of the device. CHIMRA processes samples from the rover's scoop or drill and delivers them to science instruments.

This figure shows the location of CHIMRA on the turret of NASA's Curiosity rover, together with a cutaway view of the device. The CHIMRA, short for Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis, processes samples from the rover's scoop or drill and delivers them to science instruments.

The green highlighted surface shows the location of the 150-micrometer sieve through which samples are passed (a human hair is about 100 micrometers, or microns, thick on average). In addition, the pink line shows the path from the drill to the "portion box" used to deliver the sieved particles to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

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