Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Sep 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999smtp.conf...40m&link_type=abstract
Studies of Mineralogical and Textural Properties of Martian Soil: An Exobiological Perspective, p. 40
Mathematics
Logic
Dust, Hazards, Mars (Planet), Mars Environment, Mars Surface, Planetary Geology, Soils, Dust Storms, Mars Surveyor 2001 Mission, Mars Exploration, Atomic Force Microscopy, Electrometers, Imaging Techniques, Ion Selective Electrodes, Robot Arms, Soil Science, Manned Mars Missions
Scientific paper
Sometime in the next decade NASA will decide whether to send a human expedition to explore the planet Mars. The Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA) has been selected by NASA to evaluate the Martian environment for soil and dust hazards to human exploration. The integrated MECA payload contains three elements: a wet-chemistry laboratory, a microscopy station, and enhancements to a lander robot-arm system incorporating arrays of material patches and an electrometer to identify triboelectric charging during soil excavation. The wet-chemistry laboratory will evaluate samples of Martian soil in water to determine the total dissolved solids, redox potential, pH, and quantify the concentration of many soluble ions using ion-selective electrodes. These electrodes can detect potentially dangerous heavy-metal ions, emitted pathogenic gases, and the soil's corrosive potential. MECA's microscopy station combines optical and atomic-force microscopy with a robot-arm camera to provide imaging over nine orders of magnitude, from meters to nanometers. Soil particle properties including size, shape, color, hardness, adhesive potential (electrostatic and magnetic), will be determined on the microscope stage using an ar-ray of sample receptacles and collection substrates, and an abrasion tool,. The simple, rugged atomic-force microscope will image in the submicron size range and has the capability of performing a particle-by-particle analysis of the dust and soil. Although selected by NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise, the MECA instrument suite also has the capability to address basic geology, paleoclimate, and exobiology issues. To understand both contemporaneous and ancient processes on Mars, the mineralogical, petrological, and reactivity of Martian surface materials should be constrained: the NMCA experiment will shed light on these quantities through its combination of chemistry and microscopy. On Earth, the earliest forms of life are preserved as microfossils. The atomic-force microscope will have the required resolution to image down to the scale of terrestrial microfossils and beyond.
Anderson Steven Matthew
Frant M. A.
Fuerstenau Stephen D.
Hecht Michael H.
Markiewicz Wojciech J.
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