The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, largest of the 10
science instruments for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission,
will examine samples of Martian rocks, soil and atmosphere for
information about chemicals that are important to life and other
chemical indicators about past and present environments. NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., built SAM. The
instrument actually includes three different laboratory
instruments for analyzing chemistry, plus mechanisms for
handling and processing samples. SAM will examine gases from the
Martian atmosphere, as well as gases that ovens and solvents
pull from powdered rock and soil samples. This schematic
illustration shows major components of the microwave-oven-size
instrument, which was installed into the mission's rover,
Curiosity, in January 2011. The quadrupole mass spectrometer
identifies gases by the molecular weight and electrical charge
of their ionized states. It will check for several elements
important for life as we know it, including