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Planetary Environments Laboratory
Operational

Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)

SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) is a suite of instruments onboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. SAM, along with Curiosity's other scientific instruments and tools, will investigate the past and present ability of Mars to support life.

Launch Date

November 2011

Class

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Websites


Key Staffs

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a powerful set of three instruments onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover that work together to investigate the chemistry of the Martian surface and atmosphere within Gale Crater. SAM's measurements will help scientists better understand environmental conditions over time and assess whether Mars could support and preserve evidence of microbial life, either now or at some time in its past. Though SAM's instruments would fill a laboratory here on Earth, they have been miniaturized to roughly the size of a microwave oven in order to fit inside the Curiosity rover.

SAM's instrument suite consists of a Gas Chromatograph (GC), a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS), and a Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS), as well as systems that manipulate and process samples. SAM will analyze gases, either drawn directly from the atmosphere or extracted from regolith or powdered rock samples by heating or chemically treating the samples. SAM will search for and characterize organic and inorganic molecules important to life on Earth, as well as information about the chemistry of past and present Martian environments.

SAM was built and tested at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Charles Malespin is SAM's Principal Investigator.

Related Publications

2025. "Diverse Organic Molecules on Mars Revealed by the SAM TMAH Experiment.", Nature Communications, [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Changes in the Raman and Fluorescence Spectroscopic Signatures of Irradiated Organic-Mineral Mixtures: Implications for Molecular Biosignature Detection on Mars.", Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, 128 (2): e2022JE007624 [Full Text] [10.1029/2022JE007624] [Journal Article/Letter]

2024. "Highly enriched carbon and oxygen isotopes in carbonate-derived CO2 at Gale crater, Mars.", PNAS, 121 (42): e2321342121 [Full Text] [10.1073/pnas.2321342121] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Long-chain alkanes preserved in a martian mudstone.", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 122 (13): e2420580122 [Full Text] [10.1073/pnas.2420580122] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Environmental Signatures for Habitability: What to Measure and How to Rank the Habitability Potential of Mars.", Exploring Mars Habitability, Lisbon, Portugal, [Full Text] [Proceedings]