Mars rover Curiosity zaps first rock

Image provided Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012, by NASA shows a close-up view of a Martian rock that the NASA rover Curiosity zapped at using its laser instrument. / AP Photo/NASA

(CBS News) The Curiosity rover successfully test fired a powerful laser at a nearby rock Sunday, blasting it with rapid-fire million-watt pulses that vaporized the outer layers for spectroscopic analysis.

A rock near the Curiosity rover, dubbed "Coronation," was the first target for the mobile science lab's ChemCam laser. The laser beam vaporized a tiny area of the rock, creating a visible plasma that was telescopically studied by the instrument's three spectrometers to determine its composition.

/ NASA

The Chemistry and Camera instrument, known as ChemCam, hit the target rock, dubbed "Coronation," with 30 pulses of laser light over 10 seconds, according to a NASA update. Each pulse lasted about five one-billionths of a second.

The laser beam created a visible spark of electrically charged plasma that was then observed by the instrument's telescope. The telescope, mounted on Curiosity's camera mast, fed the light through optical fibers to three spectrometers designed to record 6,144 different wavelengths of infrared, visible and ultraviolet light.

In a before-and-after image released by NASA, a tiny spot could be seen in an 8-millimeter by 8-millimeter inset that showed exactly where the laser beam hit.

"We got a great spectrum of Coronation, lots of signal," Roger Wiens, the ChemCam principal investigator at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a NASA statement. "Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's payoff time."

The Curiosity Mars rover fires its ChemCam laser at a rock outcrop in this artist's concept showing how the remote-sensing tool might be used during science operations.

/ NASA

Deputy project scientist Sylvestre Maurice of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie in Toulouse, France, said he was surprised "the data are even better than we ever had during tests on Earth."

"It's so rich, we can expect great science from investigating what might be thousands of targets with ChemCam in the next two years," he said.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is a technique used on Earth to study the composition of targets in environments that do not lend themselves to direct, hands-on examination. NASA said the tests Sunday in Gale Crater on Mars marked the first time the technique has been used on another planet.

While the test was primarily intended to help the science team characterize the complex instrument's aiming and performance, the data generated may provide immediate insights. Scientists plan to look for possible changes indicating differences between dust on the surface of the rock and its interior.

Mars rover Curiosity's first trip still weeks away

ChemCam was designed and built at Los Alamos and is a joint project between the U.S. Department of Energy and the French national space agency. It is one of 10 state-of-the-art instruments making up Curiosity's science payload that will look for carbon compounds and signs of past or present habitability during the rover's planned two-year mission.

63 Photos

Mars rover Curiosity: Images from the Red Planet

[formerlyluvnut]

They need to point that thing at Earth's middle east & let it rip....wide open!

[carolhill814]

I hope and pray there will be a lot more coming out of this after all this money spent but that is the way I feel.

[lloydbest1]

The value of the science comming out of this project can't be calculated. And we're worrying about a $2.5 billion price tag!?!?

If we were that concerned about throwing money out the window, as one previous poster put it, why are we giving $4B a year of "free" money - provided by the taxpayer - to Big Oil to use just one example?

[clydealan2]

I am so ashamed of this country. We are the most warring nation on earth and sure enough; we get to mars and the first thing we do is kill a rock.

[mecury69]

Idiot alert

[Yeah_Its_Me]

mecury - it was funny! With all the other crap going on in government, you need to laugh at some stuff.

[AnnieDanny]

I can't afford to throw $2.5 billion out the window, can you? Can we?

People are having difficulty understanding why yet another mission to Mars is meaningful or profitable. Every time I see a headline on it I'm annoyed all over again.

They need to come up with a better reason than drilling a hole in a rock. Was there life on Mars? Who cares?

[X2670]

If we all had your attitude, the world would be flat and only 6000 years old. The latter some still believe. (wacko zealots)

[PSnoBS]

Look up how much it's costing you to pay for lifetime federal healthcare for your state's representatives, living former and current, then get back to us on this one...