In April 2004, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project announced solicitation for science instruments to explore and quantitatively assess a potential habitat on Mars. Eight instruments were selected by NASA (December 14, 2004). Three of the instruments were developed by the Mars Technology Program's Mars Instrument Development Project (MIDP) funding.

They are: (1) "ChemCam: Laser Induced Remote Sensing for Chemistry and Micro-Imaging," Roger Wiens, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. ChemCam will ablate surface coatings from materials at standoff distances of up to 10 meters and measure elemental composition of underlying rocks and soils. (2) "CheMin: An X-ray Diffraction/X-ray Fluorescence (XRD/XRF) instrument for definitive mineralogical analysis in the Analytical Laboratory of MSL," David Blake, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. CheMin, will identify and quantify all minerals in complex natural samples such as basalts, evaporites and soils, one of the principle objectives of Mars Science Laboratory. (3) "Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) with an integrated suite consisting of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer," Paul Mahaffy, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. SAM will perform mineral and atmospheric analyses, detect a wide range of organic compounds and perform stable isotope analyses of organics and noble gases.

ChemCam	CheMin (Field Instrument)
CheMin (MSL Configuration)