The MSL mission has four scientific goals: Determine the landing site's habitability including the role

of water, the study of the climate and the geology of

Mars. (useful preparation for a future manned mission to Mars).

MSL has eight main scientific objectives:

Biological

(1) Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds

(2) Investigate the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur)

(3) Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes (biosignatures)

Geological and geochemical

(4) Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials

(5) Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils

Planetary process

(6) long-timescale Martian atmospheric evolution processes.

(7) Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide

Surface radiation

(8) Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.
This data would be important for a future manned mission.
Two identical on-board rover computers, called Rover Computer
Element (RCE) contain radiation hardened memory to tolerate the
extreme radiation from space and to safeguard against power-off
cycles.

Design by IBM.

VxWorks is a real-time
operating system (RTOS)
developed as proprietary
software by Wind River
of Alameda, California,
US.

Curiosity is equipped with several means of communication, for
redundancy:

An X band small deep space transponder for communication
directly to Earth via NASA's Deep Space Network:

One radio (15W) and and two antennas:

I. A low-gain omnidirectional antenna to communicate with
Earth at very Low data rates (15 bit/s Max.), regardless
orientation.
II. A high-gain antenna to communicate at speeds up to
32 kbit/s, but must be aimed.

An UHF Electra-Lite software-defined radio for communicating with
Mars orbiters:

Two radios (~9W), sharing one omnidirectional antenna.
This can communicate with the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter (MRO) and Odyssey orbiter (ODY) at speeds up to
2 Mbit/s and 256 kbit/s, respectively, but only for about 8
min/day (31 MB/day).

The first of ten instruments to be turned on.
To characterize the broad
spectrum of radiation
environment found:

inside the spacecraft
during the cruise phase.
on the surface of Mars.
RAD is funded by the Exploration Systems
Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
and Germany's Space Agency (DLR), and
developed by the Southwest Research
Institute (SwRI) and the extraterrestrial
physics group at Christian-Albrechts-
Universitt zu Kiel, Germany.

Objective
It is a pulsed sealed-tube neutron source and detector on the Mars
Curiosity rover for measuring hydrogen or ice and water at or near the
Martian surface.
Objective
Russian Federal Space Agency, [1][2] funded by Russia
One way to look for water on Mars is to look for neutrons escaping from the
planet's surface. Cosmic rays from space constantly bombard the surface
of Mars, knocking neutrons in soils and rocks out of their atomic orbits. If
liquid or frozen water happens to be present, hydrogen atoms slow the
neutrons down. In this way, some of the neutrons escaping into space have
less energy and move more slowly. These slower particles can be
measured with a neutron detector.
To measure the abundance of chemical elements
in rocks and soils.
Funded by the Canadian Space Agency
Objective
APXS exposes the material to alpha particles and X-rays
emitted during the radioactive decay of the element curium.

It takes from 10 minutes (quick look) to 3 hours (to reveal all
elements).

An onboard basaltic rock slab, surrounded by a nickel plate, is
used periodically to check the performance and calibration of
the instrument.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements
(CESR), with major contributions from JPL, Ocean Optics Inc., and the Commissariat a l'Energie
Atomique (CEA).
Two remote sensing instruments:

The first planetary science Laser-Induced
Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS)

7 m Max. distance
10 MW/mm^2 Power density
0.3 to 0.6 mm Spot diameter
1-10 Hertz (shots per second).

A Remote Micro-Imager (RMI)

gives high-resolution images of the sampling areas of the rocks and
soil that LIBS targets
Black-and-white images at 10241024 pixel (CCD)
To analyze from a distance (firing a laser) the elemental composition of vaporized
materials from areas smaller than 1 millimeter on the surface of Martian rocks and
soils.
Objective
Two parts:

Mast package : Laser - Remote micro-imager (RIM) - Telescope

The body unit: Three spectrographs.
Minerals are indicative of environmental conditions that existed when they formed. CheMin
assesses the involvement of water in their formation, deposition, or alteration.

Consists of a funnel, a sample wheel (27 reusable sample cells and 5 permanent reference
standards), and a sample sump where material is dumped after analysis.

It directs a beam of X-rays as fine as a human hair through the powdered material.

Each analysis may take up to 10 hours of analysis time. Some samples in a single sol.

An X-ray sensitive CCD imager is used (2D Image - Diffraction pattern).

CheMin is planned to analyze as many as 74 dry samples

To identify and measure the abundances of various minerals on Mars.
Objective
NASA Ames Research Center
and the JPL
It consists of three instruments:

The Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS) detects gases sampled from
the atmosphere or those released from solid samples by heating. It will
separate elements and compounds by mass for identification and
measurement.

The Gas Chromatograph (GC) is used to separate out individual gases from
a complex mixture into molecular components. It will heat soil and rock
samples until they vaporize, and will then separate the resulting gases into
various components for analysis. The resulting gas flow is analyzed in the
mass spectrometer.

The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) It measures the abundance of
various isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in atmospheric gases such
as methane, water vapor, and carbon dioxide.

To analyze organics and gases from both atmospheric and solid samples.
Objective
Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
The three SAM instruments are supported by:

a sample manipulation system (SMS)
a Chemical Separation and Processing Laboratory (CSPL).
It takes up more than half the science payload on board.
To take color images and color video footage of the Martian terrain.

The images can be stitched together to create panoramas of the landscape around the
rover.

The Mastcam design consists of two camera systems mounted on a mast. The
Mastcam will be used to study the Martian landscape, rocks, and soils; to view frost
and weather phenomena; and to support the driving and sampling operations of the
rover.

The two cameras have different focal lengths and different science color filters. One in
to study the landscape far from the rover. (~34 mm / ~100 mm focal length - 1200
1200 pixel).

The Mastcam can take high-definition video at 10 frames per second.

Electronics on the Mastcam process images independently of the rover's central
processing unit.

The Mastcam has an internal data buffer for storing thousands of images or several
hours of high-definition video footage for transmission to Earth.

Objective
MAHLI can take true-color images at 16001200 pixels with a resolution as high as
14.5 micrometers per pixel.

MAHLI has an 18.3 to 21.3 mm (0.72 to 0.84 in) focal length and a 33.838.5 field of view.

MAHLI has both white and ultraviolet LED illumination for imaging in darkness
or fluorescence imaging.

MAHLI can store either the raw images or do real time lossless predictive or JPEG compression.

The calibration target for MAHLI includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a 1909 VDB
Lincoln penny, and a stairstep pattern for depth calibration.

MAHLI is a camera on the rover's robotic arm, and acquires microscopic images of
rock and soil.
Objective
The Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) is a fixed-focus color camera
fixed-body-mounted to the fore-port-side of the MSL rover, even
with the bottom of the rover chassis.

The camera will take 1600 1200 pixel images at ~5 frames per
second throughout the period of time between heatshield
separation and touchdown plus a few seconds.

MARDI has eight gigabytes of internal buffer memory that is
capable of storing over 4,000 raw images.
MARDI imaging allowed the mapping of surrounding terrain and
the location of landing (vital for planning the path of
exploration).
Objective
Goals include:

Understanding martian general circulation
Microscale weather systems
Local hydrological cycle
Destructive potential of UV radiation
Subsurface habitability based on ground-
atmosphere interaction.
measure and provide daily and seasonal reports on
atmospheric pressure, humidity, ultraviolet radiation at the
Martian surface, wind speed and direction, air temperature,
and ground temperature around the rover.

Objective
It consists in two kinds of instruments:

MISP (MEDLI Integrated Sensor Plugs)

When the spacecraft faces extreme heat during entry into the Martian atmosphere, MISP
measures how hot it gets at different depths in the spacecraft's heat-shield material. The
heating levels are so high, in fact, that the spacecraft's thermal protection system (TPS) is
designed to burn away during entry into Mars' atmosphere. MISP will measure the rate of this
burning, also known as "recession."

MEADS (Mars Entry Atmospheric Data System)

MEADS measures the atmospheric pressure on the heat shield at the seven MEADS locations
during entry and descent through Mars' atmosphere. This can determine the spacecraft's
orientation (its position and how that changes) as a function of time. Engineers will use this
information to see how well their models predicted the spacecraft's real trajectory (its path) and
its aerodynamics.

MEDLI collected engineering data during the spacecraft's high-speed, extremely
hot entry into the Martian atmosphere. (for designing future Mars missions)
Objective
There are 12 additional cameras that support mobility:

Hazard avoidance cameras (Hazcams): The rover
has a pair of black and white navigation cameras
(Hazcams) located on each of its four corners. These
provide closed-up views of potential obstacles about
to go under the wheels.

Navigation cameras (Navcams): The rover uses
two pairs of black and white navigation cameras
mounted on the mast to support ground navigation.
These provide a longer-distance view of the terrain
ahead.