I've been meaning to read up on how mass spectrometers and others work at the detailed level. Just their ability to tell so much about various materials and chemical compositions through automated mechanics and analysis. Being able to remotely do it via a laser + high speed camera sounds like a massive capability boost for planetary missions.
Sounds like a fun engineering job to develop them on the cutting edge.
> The Mars 2020 rover marks the third time this particular microphone design will go to the Red Planet, Maurice said. In the late 1990s, the same design rode aboard the Mars Polar Lander, which crashed on the surface. In 2008, the Phoenix mission experienced electronics issues that prevented the microphone from being used.
This is one big downside to working on space missions that I wouldn't miss. It must have been heartbreaking to the developers having both the 1998 Mars Polar lander crash with all of that equipment then having the same one fail nearly a decade later. Hopefully everything goes well in the 2020 mission.