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The purpose of calibrating Sherlock on NASA Mars Rover’s persistence. | Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
If you spent time looking at a raw images of NASA Mars Rover’s perseverance, you may have come across a strange topic: a tiny, sophisticated maze embedded in a small plate, shot over and over again.
Why is Rover persistence so obsessed with this little maze? It turns out that labyrinth is the goal of calibration – one in 10 for the scanning medium of persistence with Raman and fluorescence for the organic and chemical instrument, otherwise known for its slow reduction, Sherloc.
This tool, inspired by Sherlock Holmes, is designed to detect organic compounds and other Mars minerals that can show signs of ancient microbial life. To do it accurately, the system must be carefully calibrated and the maze comes there.
Situated on Rover’s robotic arm (2.1 meters), Sherloc uses spectroscopic techniques-more special Ramanova and fluorescent spectroscopy-for analysis of Martian rocks. In order to provide accurate measurements, it must routinely calibrate its tools using a set of reference materials with specific properties. They are mounted on a plate attached to the front of the rover body: the purpose of calibrating the sherlock.
“The Calibration Targets Serve Multiple Purposes, Which Primarily Include Refining the Sherloc Wavelength Calibration, Calibranting the Shera Laser Scanner of Headie, and Monitor the Focus Uckert, Deputy Principal Investigator for Sherloc at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tells Space.com
The goal is arranged in two rows, each of which is filled with small spots of carefully selected materials.
The top row includes three critical calibration materials: Algan aluminum galli (ALGAN) on sapphire discs; Oops-distribution material diffusil; And the Sau008 Martian meteorite, whose mineral makeup is already known and helps to equalize the calibration of the wavelength with a true Martian geology.
A permanent selfie roer, showing the location of the sherlock calibration target. To the right: Image of the target to calibrate the full sherlock. | Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
You will also find the maze here. Why a maze? “Sherloc is related to the solution of puzzles and what better puzzle than a maze!” says uckert. The purpose of the maze’s purpose is to calibrate the positioning of the laser scanner mirror and to characterize the focus of the laser, which requires a purpose with sharply contrasting spectral answers. The labyrinte serves well for this purpose. “
The maze is made of chrome lines only 200 microns thick (about twice the width of human hair) printed on silicon glass. “There are no repeated patterns and the chrome coating spectrum differs from the main silicon glass,” says Uckert. This makes it possible to measure the focus and accuracy of the laser with extreme accuracy.
If you look closely at the labyrinth, you will also notice a portrait of Sherlock Holmes right in the center. Although it is an arrogant nod in the name of the instrument, it serves a practical function. “Sherloc’s spectral cards can authorize chrome lines 200 microns thick and 50 Sherlock Holmes thick silhouette in the center of the maze,” notes Uckert.
Like the portrait, the lower half of the sherlock calibration target also serves for a double purpose: calibration of spectral instruments and testing the material of the space. It contains five samples of materials used in modern rooms, including some materials that you may be familiar with, such as Teflon, Gore-Tex and Kevlar. And don’t miss the “fun” goal in this line-there is a geocache marker, supporting polycarbonate of target and really has a tie to Sherlock Holmes.
A close -up of the maze on the target to calibrate the Rover Rover of perseverance. | Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
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These materials are actively tested under conditions of Mars to determine how they are retained over time in situ, which is crucial for planning human study on the Red Planet. “Note that we use all these materials to refine Sherloc,” Uckert added. “As a bonus, rescue materials support a unique science that will help to keep future astronauts safe.”
Now, if all these Easter eggs associated with Sherlock, on the purpose of calibrating Sherlock, are not enough for you, there is one last relationship. Sherloc has a color camera as part of its instrumental package, which sometimes depicts the target and is called the wide -angle topographic sensor for operations and engineering.
Yes, Sherlock’s side blow is called Watson.