A 3rd generation synchrotron, surely. Unless she's happy to use FedEx
(do you think Customs in space ports are as anal as their terrestrial
counterparts?)
On 07/05/2013 06:00, Ethan Merritt wrote:
> The _New Yorker_ frequently publishes decently written articles on a
> huge variety of topics. Occasionally they come out with one about
> science, sometimes with a focus on a public policy issue, sometimes a
> biographical piece about a mainstream or not-so-mainstream scientist,
> sometimes a serialized first publication of a book by a scientist
> written for a wide audience. So I was not terribly surprised to find
> in the 22 April issue an article about the Mars rover Curiosity and
> the team that designed it.
> <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/22/130422fa_fact_bilger>
> Spread across two pages in the center of the issue was a color image
> of the Curiosity rover itself. Just the thing to inspire creative use
> of one's Lego collection
> <http://www.space.com/17058-mars-rover-curiosity-lego-instructions.html>.
>
> But then it got a bit strange. The caption reads:
>
> "... the mission includes a nuclear-powered mobile laboratory,
> equipped with lasers, spectrometers, and an X-ray crystallographer".
>
> Wow! Who's the lucky Mars-going crystallographer? Anyone we know?
>
> The article text goes to quote one of the JPL rover team members:
>
> "Curiosity came equipped with lasers, spectrometers, and a gas
> chromatograph. It had a radiation detector, an X-ray crystallographer,
> and a complete weather station. [...] It was like a Hummer with a
> half-dozen scientists crammed inside".
>
> OK, so at least our lucky crystallographic colleague has some company
> out there on Mars. Still, I do wonder exactly what it said in the
> job ad they responded to. Anyone know what sort of X-ray source they
> packed with them?
>
> Ethan
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