Atlas V booster rocket with the research automatic station NASA MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) on board was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport (Florida, USA) in November 2011. Nine months later, i.e. in August 2012, it is planned to bring the Curiosity Mars research vehicle to the Red Planet. Its scientific equipment includes Russian device DAN (Dynamic Albedo* of Neutrons) to collect data on the availability of water and hydrogenous compounds, worked out by order of Roskosmos at the RAS Institute of Space Research (IKI). Using this device, scientists are planning to test the hypothesis on the assumed existence of primitive life forms in the course of an early or contemporary development of Mars. The Curiosity will land near the Gale crater--a huge hollow with a high cone of sedimentary rock in the center that might have been formed by a water stream. The soil at the cone bottom contains sulphur and clay compounds formed in the presence of water. Geographical position of the crater increases chances to find its traces. DAN consists of two blocks--a pulse neutron generator made at the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Automatics named after N. Dukhov, Moscow (Rosatom State Corporation) and a neuron detector designed by the IKI--installed on the Mars research vehicle near its wheels and linked to the space vehicle with a special Photo of Mars taken by the US space telescope HUBBLE on June 26, 2001. * Albedo--characteristic of the reflective (dispersing) property of the surface of a material.--Ed. стр. 42 controlled interface. The mechanism itself is protected from the environment by heat-insulation boxes. The IKI press-service provided a detailed information on the operation principles of the device designed to actively sound the upper layer of the Martian soil (~1 m thick) and involve our country into the US project arranged by the agreement between Roskosmos and the NASA. According to the press ... Читать далее