How do instruments analyze the composition of the Martian surface and atmosphere?
Max Answer: I can tell you about one specific instrument and hopefully that will help answer your question. Currently there are two spectrometers in orbit at Mars: the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the Mars Global Surveyor and the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. There will also be a spectrometer similar to TES on the rovers that are launching this summer. These spectrometers are camers, only they see in different wavelengths than most of the camers that you probably use. They see in the thermal wavelengths (kind of like heat). Everything vibrates. You do, plants do, rocks do…the molecules that make these things up have energy and stretch and pull and bend at different wavelengths. Different materials vibrate differents, faster or slower depending on what they are made up of. The cameras that we have at mars can measure the wavelengths that the rocks on the surface, or the clouds in the atmosphere are vibrating at, or how fast they are
