---
title: "Curiosity Rover Identifies A Dozen Martian Minerals"
description: "Scientists led by Dr David Bish of Indiana University has analyzed recent data from the CheMin, a miniaturized X-ray diffraction instrument on board NASA’s Curiosity rover"
date: "2014-12-09"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Matthew Lincoln"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/justmatt"
url: "https://futurism.com/curiosity-rover-identifies-dozen-martian-minerals"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Curiosity Rover Identifies A Dozen Martian Minerals

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/image_2331-Mars-Minerals.jpg>)

- The identification of minerals in Martian soil and rocks is crucial for the Curiosity mission’s goal to assess past environmental conditions
- CheMin is one one of the ten instruments on the Curiosity rover and uses X-ray diffraction
- This method provides more accurate identifications of minerals than any method previously used on Mars