ROSCOSMOS logo / NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) patch.
04/07/2012
With the Russian device, DAN, who is flying to Mars aboard the American interplanetary station, produced the first scientific information. DAN, made at the Institute for Space Studies, stands for "dynamic neutron albedo." Its main task - with the help of the reflected beam of particles to determine how much water is in the soil of the Red Planet. We can say - neutron lozohod.
Russian scientists have tested their equipment installed on the Mars Science Laboratory, which was sent to the Red Planet four months ago. Detection of albedo neutrons or abbreviated as "DAN" defective. Neither the start nor the space the way millions of kilometers he was not hurt.
"The unit was half way to Mars, about 60 million miles, and on this cut-off was decided, it will advance mortgage, you need to enable devices to see whether all the instruments were alive," - says Maxim Mokrousov, a leading developer of hardware DAN.
MSL Curiosity Rover science instruments
Station "Kyuriositi" in Russian - "Curiosity", will arrive on the red planet in August, and landed in a crater near the equator Gale. The diameter of the crater 150 kilometers, according to scientists, it was formed after the fall of a meteorite three billion years ago. This is one of the deepest craters on Mars. And perhaps he had once been filled with water. It is the instrument DAN should confirm or refute this hypothesis.
"In the scientific community for a long time discussing where to sit, selected Gale Crater. There, the water can be, and minerals, and soil composition of interest "- continues Maxim Mokrousov.
DAN instrument consists of two blocks. One - neutron generator. Second - on-board microcomputer. While the rover "Curiosity" will go all over the crater, DAN neutron beams will be shot on the meter-deep Martian surface.
"Neutrons are not that strike, they penetrate to a depth of one meter, they walk, walk, and then come to the surface, then we do exactly that Merimee block. The more water in the soil, the fewer neutrons at the exit "- continues to tell Maxim Mokrousov.
In a project to investigate the Red Planet 5 countries involved. Russian scientists from the Institute for Space Studies was invited to American counterparts. Following a joint experiment on the moon three years ago. Then the Russian instrument "Land" established by the American satellite, was looking for ice. Studies have shown that the moon is not a boulder, there - large deposits of ice in the so-called "cold traps".
According to the head of the laboratory space gamma-ray spectroscopy of Igor Mitrofanov ISR data the ice must be in the so-called dark traps, where no sunlight penetrates.
Now experts determine which areas of the Moon and Mars, more water, which is very important for future outpost bases.
Original text in Russian: http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=18910
Image, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS / TV Studio Space Agency / NASA / JPL / Translation: Orbiter.ch.
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