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Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer

This photo shows a round, metal cylinder, small enough to fit in a human palm, open at the end to show a flat bottomed-interior with a smaller, circular metal plate at the bottom. Around the edges of the circular metal plate are six circular openings arranged in a daisy-like formation, like the chamber openings at the end of a six-cylinder pistol.

February 16, 2009

This picture shows the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer used on the Mars Exploration Rovers. The improved APXS instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory rover would be able to detect elemental composition more quickly and work both day and night.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Max Planck Institut für Chemie/University of Guelph

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Max Planck Institut für Chemie/University of Guelph

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Mobility Systems Engineer, Matt Heverly, explains how Curiosity's mobility system works to teachers participating the Curiosity Educator Conference at JPL.
Teachers Visit the Mars Yard
Relive the nail-biting terror and joy as NASA's Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT).
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Curiosity Has Landed
Curiosity Has Landed
This view combines several frames taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, looking into a valley to the west from the eastern side of a dune at the eastern end of the valley.
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This view combines several frames taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, looking into a valley to the west from the eastern side of a dune at the eastern end of the valley.
Martian Valley May Be Curiosity's Route (White-Balanced, Annotated)
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, known as Curiosity, is being prepared to be moved to a rotation fi...
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In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, known as Curiosity, is being prepared to be moved to a rotation fixture for testing.
Curiosity's Backshell
In this image, a large, six-wheeled rover sits on a concrete floor in a laboratory against a light-blue background. The rover's 'legs,' or mobility system are a medium blue color and the large, cle...
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In this image, a large, six-wheeled rover sits on a concrete floor in a laboratory against a light-blue background. The rover's 'legs,' or mobility system are a medium blue color and the large, cleated wheels are shiny silver. On top of the mobility system is a silver-colored triangle that represents where the heart and brains of the rover will go when it is complete.
Mars Science Laboratory Project Changes Respond to Cost Increases, Keep Mars Program On Track
This 3-D image from NASA's Curiosity was taken from the rover's Bradbury Landing site inside Gale Crater, Mars, using the left and right eyes of its Navigation camera. Between the rover on the righ...
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This 3-D image from NASA's Curiosity was taken from the rover's Bradbury Landing site inside Gale Crater, Mars, using the left and right eyes of its Navigation camera.
3-D View from Bradbury Landing Site
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) for this look back after finishing a long drive on Feb. 19, 2014. The rows of rocks just to the right of the fresh wheel tracks in th...
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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) for this look back after finishing a long drive on Feb. 19, 2014. The rows of rocks just to the right of the fresh wheel tracks in this view are an outcrop called "Junda." This view is looking toward the east-northeast.
Curiosity's View Back After Passing 'Junda' Striations
This version of a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover at a drilling site called "Buckskin" is presented as a stereographic projection, which shows the horizon as a circle. The MAHLI camera...
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This version of a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover at a drilling site called "Buckskin" is presented as a stereographic projection, which shows the horizon as a circle. The MAHLI camera on Curiosity's robotic arm took dozens of component images for this selfie on Aug. 5, 2015.
Round-Horizon Version of Curiosity's Low-Angle Selfie at 'Buckskin'
This image shows the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on NASA's Curiosity rover, with the Martian landscape in the background.
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This image shows the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on NASA's Curiosity rover, with the Martian landscape in the background.
Portrait of APXS on Mars
This map shows where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity landed in August 2012 at "Bradbury Landing"; the area where the rover worked from November 2012 through May 2013 at and near the "John Klein" target...
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From 'Glenelg' to Mount Sharp
From 'Glenelg' to Mount Sharp
NASA's Curiosity rover landed in the Martian crater known as Gale Crater, which is approximately the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.
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NASA's Curiosity rover landed in the Martian crater known as Gale Crater, which is approximately the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.
Curiosity Cradled by Gale Crater
This composite image looking toward the higher regions of Mount Sharp was taken on September 9, 2015, by NASA's Curiosity rover.
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Pictured here are the higher regions of Mt. Sharp.
Mount Sharp Comes In Sharply
Gray cuttings from Curiosity's drilling into a target called "Mojave 2" are visible surrounding the sample-collection hole in this Jan. 31, 2015, image from the rover's MAHLI camera. This site in t...
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Gray cuttings from Curiosity's drilling into a target called "Mohave 2" are visible surrounding the sample-collection hole in this Jan. 31, 2015, image from the rover's MAHLI camera. This site in the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop provided the mission's second drilled sample of Mars' Mount Sharp.
Site of Curiosity's Second Bite of Mount Sharp
This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Driv...
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This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Drive" route toward higher layers of the mountain.
Curiosity Heading Away from 'Pahrump Hills'
A sweeping panorama combining 33 telephoto images into one Martian vista presents details of several types of terrain visible on Mount Sharp from a location along the route of NASA's Curiosity Mars...
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A sweeping panorama combining 33 telephoto images into one Martian vista presents details of several types of terrain visible on Mount Sharp from a location along the route of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The component images were taken by the rover's Mast Camera on April 10, 2015.
Diverse Terrain Types on Mount Sharp, Mars (Unlabeled)
The Entry, Descent and Landing team celebrate just moments after news that Curiosity landed safely on Mars.
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The Entry, Descent and Landing team celebrate just moments after news that Curiosity landed safely on Mars.
Hugs Upon Curiosity's Landing
Processes in Mars' surface material can explain why particular xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr) isotopes are more abundant in the Martian atmosphere than expected, as measured by NASA's Curiosity rover....
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Processes in Mars' surface material can explain why particular xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr) isotopes are more abundant in the Martian atmosphere than expected, as measured by NASA's Curiosity rover. Cosmic rays striking barium (Ba) or bromine (Br) atoms can alter isotopic ratios of xenon and krypton.
Isotopic Clues to Mars' Crust-Atmosphere Interactions
This two-step animation shows before and after views of a patch of sandstone scrubbed with the Dust Removal Tool, a wire-bristle brush, on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Both images were taken April ...
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This two-step animation shows before and after views of a patch of sandstone scrubbed with the Dust Removal Tool, a wire-bristle brush, on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
Martian Sandstone Target "Windjana" Before and After Brushing
This view taken from orbit around Mars shows the sand dune that will be the first to be visited by NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover along its route to higher layers of Mount Sharp.
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This view taken from orbit around Mars shows the sand dune that will be the first to be visited by NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover along its route to higher layers of Mount Sharp.
Orbital View of Dune That Curiosity Will Visit
The Atlas V first stage to support the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is positioned inside the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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The Atlas V first stage to support the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is positioned inside the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The Rocket Arrives
This panorama from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows details of "Vera Rubin Ridge," which stretches about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers), end-to-end, on the northwestern flan...
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This panorama from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows details of "Vera Rubin Ridge," which stretches about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers), end-to-end, on the northwestern flank of lower Mount Sharp.
Wide 'Vera Rubin Ridge' Ahead of Curiosity Mars Rover
NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this image of rhythmic rock layers with a repetitive pattern in their spacing and thickness. Providing yet another clue to Mars’ ancient past, the pattern might have...
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NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this image of rhythmic rock layers with a repetitive pattern in their spacing and thickness.
Curiosity Views Rhythmic Rock Layers
This chart shows increases in the volume of data coming back from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity over recent sols, or Martian days. The rover has the ability to talk directly to Earth, but its data ca...
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This chart shows increases in the volume of data coming back from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity over recent sols, or Martian days. The rover has the ability to talk directly to Earth, but its data can be relayed faster, and in larger quantities, with the help of orbiters, including NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and NASA's Odyssey.
Curiosity Speaks Volumes
Mission team members share their excitement and reflections on the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.
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Launching Curiosity to Mars
Launching Curiosity to Mars
The Perseverance rover holds many promises: to look for evidence of life on Mars, to collect rock samples meant to be sent to Earth one day, and to test technology that could be used in a future hu...
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The Perseverance rover holds many promises: to look for evidence of life on Mars, to collect rock samples meant to be sent to Earth one day, and to test technology that could be used in a future human Mars mission.
The Promise of Perseverance

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