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The purpose of Sherloc’s calibration for NASA’s perseverance Mars Rover. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
If you have spent any time overestimating the carousel of raw images from NASA’s perseverance Mars Rover, you may have stumbled upon a strange theme: a small, sophisticated maze, engraved on a small plate, and again and again.
Why is the perseverance Rover so obsessed with this little maze? It turns out that the maze is a calibration target – one in 10 designed for perseverance in a living environment with an instrument of Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals, otherwise known for its cheerful abbreviation Sherloc.
This tool inspired by Sherlock Holmes is designed to detect organic compounds and other MARS minerals that could show signs of ancient germs. To do this exactly, the system must be carefully calibrated, and here’s where the labyrinth appears.
Located on seven feet (2.1 meters) robotic hands, Sherloc uses spectroscopic methods-perceptive to Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy-analyzing Mars rock. In order to ensure accurate measurements, he must regularly calibrate his tools using a set of reference materials with specific properties. They are mounted on a plate attached to the front of the Rover body: Sherloz’s calibration target.
“Calibration goals serve several purposes that primarily include Sherloc wavelength calibration, Sherloc Laser Mirror Calibration and Laser Health Care Laboratory capture and health,” says Kyle Ucket, Space.com Kyle Ucket, Space.com, Space.com.
The aim is arranged in two rows, each filled with small thoroughly selected materials patch.
The top row contains three critical calibration materials: aluminum galillic nitride (Algan) on sapphire discs; UV radiation material diffuser; and Mars meteorite for yourself008, whose mineral makeup is already known and helps to combine wavelength calibration with true Mars geology.
Selfie, a perseverance, showing the target of Sherlock calibration. RIGHT: The entire Sherloc calibration goal image. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Here you will also find a maze. Why the maze? “Sherloc is associated with a puzzle solution, and what will be a better puzzle than a maze!” Says Ucket. The purpose of the maze target is to calibrate the position of the laser scanner mirror and to describe the laser focus that requires a target with sharp contrasting spectral reactions. The maze serves well for this purpose. ”
The maze is made of chrome lines, just 200 microns thick (about twice as much as human hair width) printed on silica glass. “There are no repeated models, and the chrome panel spectrum is different from the main silica glass,” says Ucket. This allows you to measure the attention and accuracy of the laser very precisely.
If you look closely at the maze, you will also notice a portrait of Sherlock Holmes right in the center. Although it is a gloomy wish of the instrument name, it performs a practical function. “Sherloc’s spectral maps can solve 200 microns thick chrome lines and 50 microns thick in the center of Sherlock Holmest Maze,” says Ucket.
Like the portrait, the lower side of the Sherloc calibration purpose also serves in two ways: spectral calibration and space suit tests. It contains five examples of materials used in modern costumes, including some materials you can be familiar with, such as Teflon, Gore-Tex and Kevlar. And don’t miss the “fun” target in this line -Ten is a Geocache cursor that supports the polycarbonate target, and it actually has a connection with Sherlock Holmes.
Rover’s Sherloc’s calibration goal “maze” from close range. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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These materials are actively checked in Mars to determine how over time it has over time, which is very important when planning the Red Planetic exploration. “Remember that we use all of these materials to adjust Sherloc,” Ucket says. “As a bonus, space costume material supports a unique science that will help protect future astronauts.”
Now, if all of these Sherlock Holmes, associated with Easter eggs on Sherloc’s calibration goal, is not enough, there is one final reference. Sherloc has a color camera as part of a set of its devices, which sometimes depicts the target, and is called a wide -angle topographic sensor for operations and engineering.
Yes, Sherloc’s Sidekick is called Watson.