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Quick Facts
CRISM stands for Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars.
CRISM is flying on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO.
The MRO launched in August 2005 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory managed CRISM's development.
CRISM is a visible-infrared hyperspectral mapper in the wavelength range from 0.36-3.92 micrometers.
CRISM will seek evidence of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits and map the geology, composition and layering of surface features. At the same time it will monitor the patterns and density of dust and ice clouds.
CRISM uses colors in reflected sunlight to determine the mineralogy of the Martian surface.
CRISM's thin rectangular field of view can measure regions about 18 meters (60 feet) wide and 10.8 kilometers (6.7 miles) long, if MRO is at 300 kilometers (186 miles) altitude.
As MRO flies over a given area, CRISM's scanning mechanism tracks a region on the surface and slowly sweeps the field of view across it.
In less than 3 minutes, CRISM can map several hundred square kilometers.
CRISM will map Mars at 59 key wavelengths to find previously unsuspected sites of past water.
MRO's primary science phase runs from November 2006 to November 2008.
CRISM is one of six science instruments on the MRO.
CRISM is the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory's first science instrument on a Mars mission.
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