1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,630 (Roar of fire and wind as MSL enters Mars' atmosphere) 2 00:00:06,650 --> 00:00:08,770 Estelle Dodson: When NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, 3 00:00:08,790 --> 00:00:12,270 or MSL, lands on Mars the rover will have many 4 00:00:12,290 --> 00:00:14,150 ambitious science goals. 5 00:00:14,170 --> 00:00:17,370 Named Curiosity, the rover will land in Gale Crater. 6 00:00:17,390 --> 00:00:20,560 This is an ideal spot to study the exposed rock 7 00:00:20,580 --> 00:00:24,710 that offers us tantalizing clues about Mars' past. 8 00:00:24,730 --> 00:00:27,880 One of the ten science instruments that Curiosity carries 9 00:00:27,900 --> 00:00:31,000 is a unique analysis tool called CheMin, 10 00:00:31,020 --> 00:00:34,160 short for "Chemistry and Mineralogy." 11 00:00:34,180 --> 00:00:36,870 About the size of a large shoebox, this portable 12 00:00:36,890 --> 00:00:40,640 laboratory will accurately define the mineral composition 13 00:00:40,660 --> 00:00:44,920 of samples taken from the Martian soil and rocks. 14 00:00:44,940 --> 00:00:46,620 Join us as we meet the team 15 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:48,370 at NASA Ames Research Center 16 00:00:48,390 --> 00:00:50,890 who developed the CheMin instrument as well as 17 00:00:50,910 --> 00:00:54,460 discover how this technology is proving to be indispensable 18 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,280 right here on Earth. 19 00:00:57,300 --> 00:01:15,530 (Music) (Electronic Sounds of DataI) 20 00:01:15,550 --> 00:01:17,310 Estelle: To tell us more about one of the instruments 21 00:01:17,330 --> 00:01:19,750 on the Mars Science Laboratory, I'm here with 22 00:01:19,770 --> 00:01:21,820 NASA Geologist David Blake. 23 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,060 He's the inventor and Principal Investigator 24 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:25,890 on the CheMin instrument. 25 00:01:25,910 --> 00:01:27,790 David, can you tell us more about CheMin 26 00:01:27,810 --> 00:01:30,060 and what it will be doing on MSL? 27 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:32,520 David Blake: Well, CheMin is an X-ray diffraction instrument 28 00:01:32,540 --> 00:01:34,320 and this is the first time we've ever sent 29 00:01:34,340 --> 00:01:37,010 an instrument like that into space. 30 00:01:37,030 --> 00:01:40,600 X-ray diffraction is the gold standard for how to 31 00:01:40,620 --> 00:01:44,070 analyze minerals on the Earth in a large laboratory. 32 00:01:44,090 --> 00:01:46,300 So, for the first time ever we will be able to definitively 33 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:49,710 determine what minerals are present in rocks. 34 00:01:49,730 --> 00:01:53,080 And by knowing that, we will understand the history 35 00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:55,550 of the early Mars environment. 36 00:01:55,570 --> 00:01:58,490 Gale Crater is one of the oldest and deepest craters 37 00:01:58,510 --> 00:02:00,120 on the surface of Mars. 38 00:02:00,140 --> 00:02:02,830 And we believe it has sedimentological records 39 00:02:02,850 --> 00:02:05,980 that go back as far as four billion years. 40 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:07,360 Billion with a "B." 41 00:02:07,380 --> 00:02:10,620 And the significance of that, is that on the Earth 42 00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:13,920 with plate tectonics, we have no sediments that are 43 00:02:13,940 --> 00:02:16,730 that old that we can really look at and interpret. 44 00:02:16,750 --> 00:02:18,900 This is really the only way to look at a 45 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:22,800 four billion year old sediment and say how it formed 46 00:02:22,820 --> 00:02:24,970 and what the conditions were at that time. 47 00:02:24,990 --> 00:02:26,660 Estelle: How is this different than Spirit and 48 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:28,890 Opportunity that have come before? 49 00:02:28,910 --> 00:02:30,870 David: Well, we're doing something similar to what Spirit 50 00:02:30,890 --> 00:02:34,530 and Opportunity has done, but on a much larger scale. 51 00:02:34,550 --> 00:02:38,390 Spirit and Opportunity were kind of like field geologists. 52 00:02:38,410 --> 00:02:41,140 They would go out with a hand lens and a hammer 53 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,850 and look at rocks, maybe analyze the surface of a rock. 54 00:02:44,870 --> 00:02:47,970 But, Mars Science Laboratory goes a step further 55 00:02:47,990 --> 00:02:51,290 and we collect those rocks, collect powders, and we have 56 00:02:51,310 --> 00:02:55,230 essentially a full up terrestrial laboratory inside the body 57 00:02:55,250 --> 00:02:58,880 of Mars Science Laboratory and that's what's going to be different. 58 00:02:58,900 --> 00:03:01,320 Estelle: How do you get a laboratory to fit on a 59 00:03:01,340 --> 00:03:04,290 rover that's going to go to another planet? 60 00:03:04,310 --> 00:03:05,770 David: Okay, well you have to make it small, 61 00:03:05,790 --> 00:03:09,100 that's one thing, small and a lot less mass. 62 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,790 So, a regular diffractometer in the lab is about like 63 00:03:12,810 --> 00:03:15,500 double-wide refrigerator-sized, with lots of 64 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,570 complicated motions of the detector, of the sample 65 00:03:18,590 --> 00:03:20,200 and of the source. 66 00:03:20,220 --> 00:03:24,760 We kind of had a new idea where we actually vibrate the sample 67 00:03:24,780 --> 00:03:28,910 with a tuning fork, so that the sample itself does all the motions 68 00:03:28,930 --> 00:03:31,520 and the machine doesn't have to. 69 00:03:31,540 --> 00:03:33,900 So, we essentially went from a complicated big machine 70 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:36,750 with many moving parts to a small simple machine 71 00:03:36,770 --> 00:03:38,930 with no moving parts. 72 00:03:38,950 --> 00:03:41,000 Estelle: What's the most exciting thing about CheMin 73 00:03:41,020 --> 00:03:43,780 flying on MSL for you? 74 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:45,950 David: So I've been doing diffraction, I've been 75 00:03:45,970 --> 00:03:49,360 working in the business for thirty-five years 76 00:03:49,380 --> 00:03:53,460 and so having this kind of come to fruition finally 77 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,890 is really exciting to me. 78 00:03:57,910 --> 00:03:59,540 Estelle: To tell us more about this technology, 79 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,130 we're meeting with Philippe Sarrazin, 80 00:04:01,150 --> 00:04:03,160 who helped develop the CheMin instrument. 81 00:04:03,180 --> 00:04:06,010 He is now the Chief Scientist at InXitu, a division 82 00:04:06,030 --> 00:04:09,090 of Olympus that is commercializing the technology. 83 00:04:09,110 --> 00:04:11,380 Philippe, what is X-ray diffraction? 84 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,930 Is it similar to regular X-ray imaging techniques? 85 00:04:14,950 --> 00:04:16,530 Philippe Sarrazin: It's actually quite different. 86 00:04:16,550 --> 00:04:18,680 X-ray diffraction is a method for analyzing 87 00:04:18,700 --> 00:04:20,480 crystalline materials. 88 00:04:20,500 --> 00:04:22,890 Every crystal, every type of crystal has a 89 00:04:22,910 --> 00:04:27,220 very unique signature in X-ray diffraction. 90 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,030 Crystals are everywhere around us. 91 00:04:29,050 --> 00:04:31,810 They're in geological materials, but they're also in 92 00:04:31,830 --> 00:04:34,820 man-made materials such as metals, or ceramics 93 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:37,980 or concrete, or even pharmaceutical products. 94 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,440 So by using our instruments we can identify 95 00:04:42,460 --> 00:04:47,320 the nature of the crystals inside a sample. 96 00:04:47,340 --> 00:04:50,680 I can take an example of, you know, two materials 97 00:04:50,700 --> 00:04:53,580 that are very much alike, but very much different. 98 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:56,500 Two materials that are made out of 100 percent of carbon: 99 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,270 one is graphite and the other one is diamond. 100 00:04:59,290 --> 00:05:01,530 X-ray diffraction can tell the difference between 101 00:05:01,550 --> 00:05:03,980 diamond and graphite where traditional 102 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,340 chemical analyzers would see carbon. 103 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:07,930 Estelle: Tell us how the CheMin instrument evolved 104 00:05:07,950 --> 00:05:10,300 into a commercially produced product. 105 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:13,000 Philippe: I used to work with David Blake at NASA 106 00:05:13,020 --> 00:05:16,140 and we developed a number of prototypes to 107 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,280 demonstrate the capability of the technology. 108 00:05:19,300 --> 00:05:21,800 In the process of doing that we had the chance 109 00:05:21,820 --> 00:05:24,350 to test our instruments in the field and it was the 110 00:05:24,370 --> 00:05:27,710 first time X-ray diffraction was taken out of the lab. 111 00:05:27,730 --> 00:05:30,690 Seeing the capability that geologists could use 112 00:05:30,710 --> 00:05:35,240 on the site was quite a revelation that there were 113 00:05:35,260 --> 00:05:37,010 a number of commercial applications that could 114 00:05:37,030 --> 00:05:38,660 be derived from that technology. 115 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:40,900 Estelle: And what types of areas is it being used in? 116 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,930 Philippe: So we released our first product in 2007, 117 00:05:43,950 --> 00:05:45,670 it's called Terra. 118 00:05:45,690 --> 00:05:49,390 And Terra is being used by a number of scientists 119 00:05:49,410 --> 00:05:53,750 and engineers in very different fields such as geology obviously, 120 00:05:53,770 --> 00:05:59,930 but also the oil industry for oil drilling, in mining 121 00:05:59,950 --> 00:06:04,000 or even the pharmaceutical industry or museums. 122 00:06:04,020 --> 00:06:06,120 Estelle: How is it being used in a museum? 123 00:06:06,140 --> 00:06:07,760 Philippe: The objective was to have an instrument 124 00:06:07,780 --> 00:06:11,110 that could analyze surface materials, 125 00:06:11,130 --> 00:06:14,760 mostly pigments in works of art such as paintings 126 00:06:14,780 --> 00:06:18,520 and frescoes or sculptures and non-destructively. 127 00:06:18,540 --> 00:06:21,410 Terra and CheMin are both destructive instruments, 128 00:06:21,430 --> 00:06:24,340 you need to sample and grind that sample. 129 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:26,410 Which obviously would be a problem 130 00:06:26,430 --> 00:06:29,240 when you are analyzing a very expensive 131 00:06:29,260 --> 00:06:32,100 and rare work of art. (Laughs) 132 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,120 Estelle: What are some of the more interesting 133 00:06:34,140 --> 00:06:36,160 works of art that you've been able to see? 134 00:06:36,180 --> 00:06:39,120 Philippe: So that instrument was taken into unique sites, 135 00:06:39,140 --> 00:06:43,910 such as King Tut's tomb or the Acropolis in Athens. 136 00:06:43,930 --> 00:06:45,270 Estelle: What do you see as the future 137 00:06:45,290 --> 00:06:46,900 of the CheMin technology? 138 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:49,340 Philippe: What's unique about what we've created for this 139 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:53,090 Mars project as well as for the commercial spin-off, 140 00:06:53,110 --> 00:06:56,050 is that there's nothing in the world, other than 141 00:06:56,070 --> 00:06:59,950 what we've developed, that allows doing these analyses 142 00:06:59,970 --> 00:07:03,940 in the field and almost instantly you get answers 143 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:05,950 within minutes or tens of minutes. 144 00:07:05,970 --> 00:07:10,100 It really opens new horizons for some applications, 145 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:12,520 whether they're scientific or industrial, 146 00:07:12,540 --> 00:07:15,370 so there's a lot of potential for the technique 147 00:07:15,390 --> 00:07:19,020 that was developed for CheMin. 148 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:20,280 Estelle: Thanks for joining us! 149 00:07:20,300 --> 00:07:24,850 And meet us again on our next Destination Innovation. 150 00:07:27,950 --> 00:07:30,180 For more information about the CheMin instrument 151 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:36,650 please visit NASA dot gov slash Ames.