'Curiosity' Fires Up Its Laser Beam on 1st Mars Target (Weekend Feature)The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy
« Extraterrestrial Life --"Alternative Biochemistries" (Weekend Feature) |Main| Image of the Day: Spectacular Colliding Clusters of Massive Stars (Weekend Feature) »August 18, 2012 'Curiosity' Fires Up Its Laser Beam on 1st Mars Target (Weekend Feature)
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team have received the first photos from the instrument’s remote micro imager. The successful capture of ChemCam’s first 10 photos sets the stage for the first test bursts of the instrument’s rock-zapping laser in the near future.
When ChemCam fires its extremely powerful laser pulse, it briefly focuses the energy of a million light bulbs onto an area the size of a pinhead. The laser blast vaporizes a small amount of its target up to seven meters (23 feet) away.
The resultant flash of glowing plasma is viewed by the system’s 4.3-inch aperture telescope, which sends the light down an optical fiber to a spectrometer located in the body of the rover. There the colors of the light from the flash are recorded, enabling scientists to determine the elemental composition of the vaporized material. ChemCam also has a high-resolution camera that provides close-up images of an analyzed location. It can image a human hair from seven feet away. The ChemCam system is designed to capture as many as 14,000 observations throughout the mission.
“The successful delivery of these photos means we can begin efforts in earnest for the first images of Mars rocks by the ChemCam instrument and the first use of the instrument’s laser,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory planetary scientist Roger Wiens, Principal Investigator of the ChemCam Team. “We anticipate these next steps over the weekend.”
The next tasks for ChemCam—the inaugural laser burst and spectral reading—will help scientists determine the integrity of the ChemCam system and the pointing capability of the rover’s mast, which supports ChemCam’s laser and telescope.
Scientists and engineers from NASA’s Curiosity rover mission have selected ChemCam’s first target, a three-inch rock designated N-165 located near the rover.* “Rock N-165 looks like your typical Mars rock, about three inches (seven centimeters) wide and it's about 10 feet away,” Wiens said. “We are going to hit it with 14 milliJoules of energy 30 times in 10 seconds. It is not only going to be an excellent test of our system, but it should be pretty cool too.”
The ChemCam system is one of 10 instruments mounted on the MSL mission’s Curiosity rover—a six-wheeled mobile laboratory that will roam more than 12 miles of the planet’s surface during the course of one Martian year (98 Earth weeks).
The laser, telescope, and camera were provided by the French space agency, CNES, while the spectrometers, electronics, and software were built at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which leads the investigation. The spectrometers were developed with the aid of Ocean Optics, Incorporated, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory assisted with various aspects of development.
The Daily Galaxy via Los Alamos National Laboratories
Posted at 08:05 AM | PermalinkComments
Great, our first weapon on Mars... let it be noted; the nanoMartian objected, but was vaporized.
Posted by:dr burke |August 18, 2012 at 06:00 PMyes dr burke, and thus is the course of nature on practically all scales and in all beings. Don't get it twisted this universe is creation via destruction, and we aren't going to be changing that anytime soon. People are too damn sentimental, they don't comprehend the harsh reality of the universe. As humanity we are nothing, and using our intellect we can learn and our ability to record information we can gather that knowledge together to progress on and on. Any little thing we learn by vaporizing nano-martians is something that progresses our species. Is it "humane"? No, but it is what makes us human. We have exploited the environment in countless ways to achieve what we have, moral or not it's simply what we are, and without doing it, we would be extinct, do not doubt that. Curiosity is the human condition, the human mission. We will dig somethings insides out to find out about it, and not hesitate to go kill a bunch more and eat them if they are safe and taste good (-=
Posted by:Justin |August 18, 2012 at 11:54 PMIt doesnt say how much damage the laser can/did do. Was the 3 inch rock completely vaporized? was there a 2 foot crater made? was the area damaged the size of a coin? I see no reference claiming the rock was vaporized. "The laser blast vaporizes a small amount of its target up to seven meters (23 feet) away." is as close as any reference gets.
And I agree with Justin. If we found a forest there, we would start cutting it down for firewood and shelter our first day there and start testing its fruit and leaves to use as food. Any critters hiding in them would be tested also.
and YES, I know there is no air there for fire, trees ect ect.....
Posted by:smartypants |August 19, 2012 at 07:21 AMWell, Justin, that is the bleak picture of humanity with which we have justified all kinds of misdeeds....as if we had no choice but to be thoughtless, selfish, and greedy...as if our current version of progress, where millions live in fear, poverty and violence while some who have everything still want more...as if a reasonable definition of development and progress is trashing and destroying whatever we live on, or whoever/whatever lives on land that want. You don't think that human beings can live full, productive lives and continue to evolve in a world where compassion, humaneness, cooperation and moderation are the norm? Clearly, we can live in different worlds even though we inhabit the same planet.
Posted by:Tosca Zraikat |August 19, 2012 at 05:58 PMPost a comment
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