Mars rover Curiosity uses arm camera at night

Scientists used the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager instrument for a close-up nighttime look at a rock target called Sayunei.
By | Published: January 28, 2013 | Last updated on May 18, 2023

Martian-rock
This image of a martian rock illuminated by white-light LEDs is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. // Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity for the first time has used the camera on its arm to take photos at night, illuminated by white lights and ultraviolet lights on the instrument.

Scientists used the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument for a close-up nighttime look at a rock target called “Sayunei,” in an area where Curiosity’s front-left wheel had scuffed the rock to provide fresh, dust-free materials to examine. The site is near where the rover team plans to begin using Curiosity to drill into a rock in coming weeks. The images of the rock Sayunei and of MAHLI’s calibration target were taken January 22 and received on Earth January 23.

Martian-rock-ultrtaviolet-light
This image of a martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet LEDs is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. // Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The MAHLI, an adjustable-focus color camera, includes its own light-emitting diode (LED) illumination sources.

“The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination was to look for fluorescent minerals,” said Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California. “These data just arrived this morning. The science team is still assessing the observations. If something looked green, yellow, orange, or red under the ultraviolet illumination, that’d be a more clear-cut indicator of fluorescence.”

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