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Mahaffy: SAM is a suite of instruments that is
one of 10 investigations on the Mars

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Science Laboratory, named Curiosity, which
is on its way to Mars. I'm the principal

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investigator on SAM, the sample analysis
at Mars experiment. Eigenbrode:  MSL will collect a

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sample either drill it or will scoop up
a powdered sample of some sort, and it will

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drop that into SAM. And then it heats it
up really hot and produces a whole bunch

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of gases that come out of that rock.
Mahaffy: SAM has three different instruments

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glued together by a system that moves
sample around and moves gas around and

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processes the gas. Eigendrode:  The isotopes of those
gases will tell us about the processes

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that form them. In particular, it helps us
identify organic molecules that might be

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present. And that is a big secret of Mars,
is where are those organic molecules and

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where did they come from? So SAM will
help us identify those. Conrad: On Earth we have

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the luxury of putting in sample after
sample into each laboratory apparatus.

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Once you go to another planet, every dot
of every electron that you use is

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measured. So one way in which Sam differs
from earthbound instruments is that it

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is very, very sensitive just like
instruments that take up a whole bench

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top in the laboratory, but it's
relatively tiny, it's about the size of a

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microwave oven.
Mars is a puzzle: we don't know whether

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life ever arose on Mars, we don't know if
there is life there now. But what we can

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measure is what the potential is for
habitability on Mars,

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and we can do this by looking at the
complete chemical picture. Mahaffy:  Does life

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emerge generally in planets where the
conditions for life are favorable, or

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might life take its own unique paths in
different environments and turn out

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differently.