Cutting Edge Tech Slated for Next Mars Rover [VIDEO]
Is pushing the boundaries of technology as it readies its next mission to Mars, loading up its fourth Mars Rover with nearly a dozen instruments and employing an innovative but risky landing procedure.Scientists and engineers were piecing together some of the final components to the new rover, dubbed Curiosity, on Saturday as it ramps up for a high-stakes launch in November.
The $2.5-billion-dollar rover is more advanced than the Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity that roamed the Red Planet in past years.
Curiosity will house a fully fledged science laboratory that can perform real-time tests on the planet, making it the most sophisticated unmanned spacecraft ever built. It is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover.
Key to the trip will be a suite of instruments named Sample Analysis at Mars that will analyze samples of material collected and delivered by the rover's arm, plus atmospheric samples.
It includes a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer and a tunable laser spectrometer with combined capabilities to identify a wide range of organic compounds and determine the ratios of different isotopes of key elements. Isotope ratios are clues to understanding the history of Mars' atmosphere and water.
An X-ray diffraction and fluorescence instrument called CheMin will also examine samples gathered by the robotic arm. It is designed to identify and quantify the minerals in rocks and soils, and to measure bulk composition. A retractable arm will house instruments for sampling data from afar. Mounted on the arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager will take extreme close-up pictures of rocks, soil and, if present, ice, revealing details smaller than the width of a human hair.
Also on the arm, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer for Mars Science Laboratory will determine the relative abundances of different elements in rocks and soils.
An instrument named ChemCam will use laser pulses to vaporize thin layers of material from Martian rocks or soil targets up to 7 meters (23 feet) away. It will include both a spectrometer to identify the types of atoms excited by the beam, and a telescope to capture detailed images of the area illuminated by the beam.
Types Of Rocks And Soil - News
An instrument named ChemCam will use laser pulses to vaporize thin layers of material from Martian rocks or soil targets up to 7 meters (23 feet) away. It will include both a spectrometer to identify the types of atoms excited by the beam,
Radon is a radioactive gas which comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in rocks and soil. You cannot see, smell or taste radon. It enters a home from ground soils around the foundation walls and through well water.
Well-drained soil is important for the rock garden. Winter wetness is the top killer of rock garden plants. If your soil is not the type favored by these plants, you must amend the soil. An all-purpose soil mix is one part compost, one part coarse sand
The North American Rock Garden Society actually is a group of individuals interested in plants that can grow among a rocky habitat, in layman's terms. Rock gardening is defined as growing plants in, around and among rocks or in rocky soil.
The workshop will address creating effective soil amendments and fertilizer from materials found right at home. These instructions will help participants to join the Green Movement by practicing some basic composting techniques at home. Different types
Decorate your home with the earth tones part 1
Create harmonious schemes based on the old inks of minerals, rocks and soil, earth colours are part of our natural environment and a perfect background for everyday life.
The subdued shades of colors are derived from pigments that occur naturally in the soil, various types of soil, minerals and Earth rock are part of the structure of land and their colors vary in intensity and shade. These Brown browns, terra cottas, and Ochre yellow all belong in the same tonal range, however, and therefore an in built harmony, which means that they mix well together.
Brown is central to the range, first as a pure color itself, and then as the creator of a huge diversity of subtle nuances, tinged with shades of red, yellow or green, tile, brown, burnt Orange mustard and persimmon fit into the image. Add to this all the delicate shades of beige and cream, created by the mixture of lime or chalk and dark tones of soot and coal and the strength and usefulness of this color group clear. It’s that have formed the basic palette of the life of the world’s cultures and nuances were used to murals of sophisticated to the Roman temple, Aboriginal war and Celtic pottery painting.
In nature, rooms decorated in earth tones with a soft, welcoming feeling and a sense of eternity. They are colors that our eyes are recognized as friends family, although they are often due to muddy origin, combined, very difficult to define. They are as far away from the pure, clear colors primary as you can get, and they have rooted their origins well back by synthetic dye processes made bright, dazzling colors available to the public.