Mars rover laser

[c0ldshadow]

thought these were cool

Mars Rock-Zapping Laser Explained | PCWorld


Mars rover gets set for laser blasts - Cosmic Log

 

[Meatball]

This is exactly what I do at my university. Its called LIBS for short.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Soren]

http://libs.lanl.gov/CHEMCAM_1_pg_web.pdf

Brief, 5 ns pulses from a 30 mJ Nd:KGW laser at 1067 nm create light-emitting plasmas from the materials ablated from the sample. The emission spectra consist of spectrally narrow atomic and first- ionized emission lines from the elements contained in the sample. ChemCam’s spectral range covers 240- 860 nm in 3 spectrometers with resolutions between 0.15 and 0.65 nm FWHM. LIBS detects nearly all elements, including H, C, N, O, with most elements displaying multiple emission lines. Sensitivity to alkali elements is very high, with detection limits close to 10 ppm for Li. LIBS yields major element compositions at ±10% relative accuracy and precision.

 

[Nimoxp]

Love it! I've been keeping track of this mission from the start, and did not really think it would land in one piece. When it did, i was just Blown away!

Anyway another update link below. They are analyzing the laser results.

Rover's Laser Instrument Zaps First Martian Rock - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory


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[lowell389]

I have been watching the news about this rover as well.
I find just about everything I hear about it to be fascinating!