Monday, August 20, 2012

Rover's Laser Instrument Zaps First Martian Rock


I hope you are following the new adventures of Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover.

Gene sent me the following.  Hope you are getting the MSL  updates, but if not take a look.
- LRK -


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Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Mission Status Report                        Aug. 19, 2012


Rover's Laser Instrument Zaps First Martian Rock
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/


PASADENA, Calif. - Today, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity fired its laser for the first time on Mars, using the beam from a science instrument to interrogate a fist-size rock called "Coronation."

The mission's Chemistry and Camera instrument, or ChemCam, hit the fist-sized rock with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.

The energy from the laser excites atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam catches the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzes it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target.

"We got a great spectrum of Coronation -- lots of signal," said ChemCam Principal Investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M. "Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's payoff time!"

ChemCam recorded spectra from the laser-induced spark at each of the 30 pulses. The goal of this initial use of the laser on Mars was to serve as target practice for characterizing the instrument, but the activity may provide additional value. Researchers will check whether the composition changed as the pulses progressed. If it did change, that could indicate dust or other surface material being penetrated to reveal different composition beneath the surface. The spectrometers record intensity at 6,144 different wavelengths of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light.

"It's surprising that the data are even better than we ever had during tests on Earth, in signal-to-noise ratio," said ChemCam Deputy Project Scientist Sylvestre Maurice of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie (IRAP) in Toulouse, France. "It's so rich, we can expect great science from investigating what might be thousands of targets with ChemCam in the next two years."

The technique used by ChemCam, called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, has been used to determine composition of targets in other extreme environments, such as inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor, and has had experimental applications in environmental monitoring and cancer detection. Today's investigation of Coronation is the first use of the technique in interplanetary exploration.

Curiosity landed on Mars two weeks ago, beginning a two-year mission using 10 instruments to assess whether a carefully chosen study area inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

ChemCam was developed, built and tested by the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and research agency, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project, including Curiosity, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl 


and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/

marscuriosity and on Twitter at:http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

More information about ChemCam is available at http://www.msl-chemcam.com 


Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov / Agl


e@jpl.nasa.gov
news.cfm?release=2012-248&cid=release_2012-248&msource=2012248
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Another write up at Science News which you can also sign up for info on new posts.
Check out the images and links to more information.
- LRK -

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http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/19aug_curiosity3/

Curiosity Zaps First Martian Rock


August 19, 2012:  NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has fired its laser for the first time on Mars. On Aug. 19th the mission's ChemCam instrument hit a fist-sized rock named "Coronation" with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.
The energy from the laser creates a puff of ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam catches the light with a telescope and analyzes it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the rock. The spectrometers record 6,144 different wavelengths of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light.
"We got a great spectrum of Coronation -- lots of signal," said ChemCam Principal Investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M. "Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's payoff time!"
snip
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/
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You might be interested in following the suggested links for ChemCam.
- LRK - 

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index.php?menu=inc&page_consult=textes&rubrique=64&sousrubrique=223&soussousrubrique=0&titre_url=ChemCam
snip
What Will ChemCam Tell Us?
Simply stated, ChemCam will tell us what the rocks are made of in the Curiosity rover’s landing region. The primary objectives of ChemCam are to rapidly analyze rocks and soil to determine their compositions and to identify samples that would be of greatest interest to scientists for analysis by other instruments onboard Curiosity.
Rapid Analysis of Rocks and Soil
Determining the composition of rocks on the Martian surface is usually a laborious, time-consuming task, even for advanced spacecraft such as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Most rocks on the surface of Mars are covered with a layer of dust. Many rocks are also covered with a layer of material that has been altered by wind and possibly water. To determine the true composition of a rock, spacecraft must first clear away the dust and the altered layer of rock. This involves the spacecraft rolling up to the rock and using a tool to clear away the unwanted layers (Figure 1). Dust can be easily removed but altered layers of rock usually need to be removed by grinding away the material. Another obstacle is the rock grinder. They wear down. In fact the rock grinders on the MER rovers wore down long ago. When conducting a Mars mission, this seemingly menial task may require at least one day’s worth of operations, a long time by mission standards. ChemCam, with its unique laser system, will be able to perform the same task in a fraction of the time and without having to be in contact with the rock.
snip
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A lot of information on Curiosity rover gathered here at Wikipedia'
- LRK -

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Curiosity_rover
The Curiosity rover is a robotic, car-sized rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars. The Curiosity Mars rover carries a radioisotope-powered mobile 
scientific laboratory and is part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission by the United States.
Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011 at 10:02 EST aboard the MSL spacecraft and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17:57.3 UTC.[5] The final landing place for the rover was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from its target after a 563,000,000 km (350,000,000 mi) journey.[6]
The rover's goals include investigation of the Martian climate, geology, and whether Mars could have ever supported life, including investigation of the role of water and planetary habitability, and preparing for human exploration.[7][8]

wiki/Curiosity_rover
wiki/Curiosity_rover#section_3

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And more uses for the technology right here back on Earth.
- LRK -

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pages/msl/news/msl20120819b.





html
Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Mission Status Report
PASADENA, Calif. - Today, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity fired its laser for the first time on Mars, using the beam from a science instrument to interrogate a fist-size rock called "Coronation."
The mission's Chemistry and Camera instrument, or ChemCam, hit the fist-sized rock with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.
The energy from the laser excites atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam catches the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzes it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target.
"We got a great spectrum of Coronation -- lots of signal," said ChemCam Principal Investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M. "Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's payoff time!"
snip
The technique used by ChemCam, called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, has been used to determine composition of targets in other extreme environments, such as inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor, and has had experimental applications in environmental monitoring and cancer detection. Today's investigation of Coronation is the first use of the technique in interplanetary exploration.
Curiosity landed on Mars two weeks ago, beginning a two-year mission using 10 instruments to assess whether a carefully chosen study area inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
ChemCam was developed, built and tested by the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and research agency, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
snip
Laser-induced_breakdown_





spectroscopy
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Will be looking up and watching.
- LRK -

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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