Mars Exploration Rovers Project

MER Title Page | Microscopic Imager | Astrogeology Home

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Introduction

Several scientists and specialists in the Astrogeology Program are involved in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project. The MER Project is part of the Mars Exploration Program directed by the Solar System Exploration Division of the NASA Office of Space Science (OSS). Part of a series of NASA missions designed to explore Mars in the coming decade, MER delivered two landers to the surface of Mars January 3 and January 24, 2004, each carrying identical rovers and the imaging and sensor instruments of the Athena science payload. Athena instruments include the multispectral panoramic camera (Pancam), a broad-band microscopic imager (Microscopic Imager), a thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES), a rock scraper (Rock Abrasion Tool), and two instruments designed to measure the composition of rocks and soils (the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer or APXS, and the Mössbauer spectrometer). Provided by German research teams, the APXS will measure the concentrations of most of the major rock-forming elements, while the Mössbauer spectrometer will be used to identify minerals that contain iron. Equipped with all of these instruments, the twin rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project will be robotic field geologists, exploring Mars' climate history and searching for evidence of ancient, water-rich environments that could have supported Martian life, in the first 5 months of 2004.

The Principal Investigator of Athena, Steve Squyres (Cornell University), is managing Athena with the help of a large number of scientists at many institutions. Two Astrogeology scientists, Ken Herkenhoff and Larry Soderblom, are MER Co-Investigators. In addition, each of the Athena payload instruments has a Payload Element Lead (PEL):

• Pancam: Jim Bell (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY)
• Mini-TES: Phil Christensen (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ)
• Mössbauer: Göstar Klingelhöfer (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany)
• APXS: Rudi Rieder (Max Planck Institute für Chemie, Mainz, Germany)
• Microscopic Imager: Ken Herkenhoff (USGS, Astrogeology, Flagstaff, AZ)
• Rock Abrasion Tool: Steve Gorevan (Honeybee Electronics, New York, NY)

Working under the leadership of Athena science team members Ken Herkenhoff, Jeff Johnson, and Larry Soderblom, Astrogeology scientists and staff members Randy Kirk, Lisa Gaddis, Michael H. Carr, Matt Staid, Mark Rosiek, Eric Eliason, Trent Hare, Annie Howington-Kraus, Brent Archinal, Bob Sucharski, Lynn Weller, Tracie Sucharski, Debbie Cook, Janet Barrett, Jim Torson, Kris Becker, Jeff Anderson, and Devon Burr are assisting with calibration of all of the MER cameras, providing software tools for analyzing stereoscopic images from the Pancam and MI instruments, and preparing in a variety of ways for analyses of MER image data in 2004.

Rover Photos Click image to view two photos, 600 x 430, 200 kilobytes

Rover Hardware Gallery View images of rover flight and scientific hardware being built, calibrated, and tested. Above: a wafer full of the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) detectors used in the MER cameras.

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Slideshow Presentation 16 720 x 540 slides, ranging from 40 to 150 kilobytes Slideshow opens in a new window. PowerPoint Slideshow 4.7 megabytes

Photo Gallery: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Activities As part of the involvement of the USGS Astrogeology Research Program in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, scientists and staff travel to JPL to take part in the landing and mission activities. Visit our MER gallery to see photos of our scientists and staff at work during the mission! For more Mars Exploration Rover news, see Hot Topics.

Continue to the Microscopic Imager Page

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Recent Publications

Soils of Eagle Crater and Meridiani Planum at the Opportunity Rover Landing Site
by L. A. Soderblom, R. C. Anderson, R. E. Arvidson, and others.
12/03/2004

Evidence from Opportunity's Microscopic Imager for Ancient Water on Meridiani Planum
by K. E. Herkenhoff, S. W. Squyres, R. Arvidson, and others.
12/03/2004

Textures of the Soils and Rocks at Gusev Crater from Spirit's Microscopic Imager
by K. E. Herkenhoff, S. W. Squyres, R. Arvidson, and others.
08/06/2004

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Related Resources

The Mission

• Cornell: MER Project online
• NASA: Mars Exploration Program
• USGS Astro: MER Project -- Landing Site Mapping

MER Hardware

• ASU: Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES)
• JGU: Mössbauer
• Honeybee Robotics: Rock Abrasion Tool

General Mars Information

• Views of the Solar System: Mars Introduction -- geology, images, mission info, and more
• Exploring Mars
• USGS Astrogeology Research Program: Mars Information, Projects, and Links

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Contact Information

For more information, contact:

Ken Herkenhoff
U.S. Geological Survey, Astrogeology Team
2255 N. Gemini Dr., Flagstaff, AZ, 86001
Phone: (928) 556-7205
FAX: (928) 556-7014
E-mail: kherkenhoff@usgs.gov

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Credits: Banner imagery Cornell MER Project (Daniel Maas) and the USGS Astrogeology Research Program; Rover diagrams, JPL/NASA.