A bright ball of plasma is produced by ChemCam’s invisible laser beam striking a rock within the Mars sample chamber.
Curiosity will carry the newly delivered laser instrument to reveal which elements are present in Mars' rocks and soils. Star Wars photon gun will give Mars rover hands-free rock ID LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, September 21, 2010—The ChemCam instrument has completed the first short leg of its long trip to Mars, arriving at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from Los Alamos National Laboratory for installation aboard the next Mars rover, due to launch in 2011. The NASA Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, Curiosity, will carry the newly delivered laser instrument to reveal which elements are present in Mars' rocks and soils up to 7 meters (23 feet) away from the rover. By firing intense pulses of laser light at potentially distant targets, the ChemCam instrument uses a technique called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), to measure the chemical content of the target samples. The laser beam zaps a pinhead-sized area on the target, vaporizing it. A spectral analyzer then peers closely at the flash of light from the vaporized sample. Atoms ablated in ionized states emit light and each sample yields spectral emissions at unique wavelengths revealing the elements present in the material.
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