Curiosity’s Laser Leaves Its Mark
Before-and-after images from Curiosity’s ChemCam micro-imager show holes left by its million-watt laser (NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGN/CNRS)PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW! Curiosity’s head-mounted ChemCam did a little target practice on August 25, blasting millimeter-sized holes in a soil sample named “Beechey” in order to acquire spectrographic data from the resulting plasma glow. The neat line of holes is called a five-by-one raster, and was made from a distance of about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters).
Sorry Obi-Wan, but Curiosity’s blaster is neither clumsy nor random!
(...)
Read the rest of Curiosity’s Laser Leaves Its Mark (210 words)
© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: ChemCam, Curiosity, laser, Mars, MSL, Rover, spectrography, target
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
