Right now, there’s a bit of Martian soil sitting in the Curiosity rover’s sample analysis tool that some Earthlings are getting pretty excited about. If the folks at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory find what they think they’ve found, it’ll be “one for the history books,” according to the team.
NPR’s Joe Palca caught up with John Grotzinger, principal investigator for the rover mission, who said his team was “busily chewing away” on data as it came in from Curiosity’s SAM instruments.
SAM, or the Sample Analysis at Mars, contains a trio of instruments that allow the rover to perform a wide range of experiments on the surface of Mars, and to identify what chemicals and gases are found in samples. Curiosity’s scoop delivered a soil sample to SAM for the first time on November 9, and so far JPL has kept a tight lid on the details, without even a hint given.
Grotzinger and his team aren’t talking yet because they have to make sure what they’ve found is real.
via DVICE
Image: Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars tool, seen outside of the rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL)
