When NASA sent the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to the Red Planet in 2006, the spacecraft took an instrument with it called CRISM — Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars. CRISM’s job is to produce maps of Mars’ surface mineralogy. It’s been an enormous success, but unfortunately, the loss of its last cryocooler in 2017 means the spectrometer can only undertake limited observations.
