NASA Mars Curiosity Rover: ChemCam Laser makes Sparks Fly - Video

NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars has set off some fireworks on the Red Planet with the zap-zap-zap of its high-tech space laser.

On Saturday (July 12), Curiosity photographed sparks flying from a baseball-size rock blasted by the 1-ton robot's laser-sampling Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam).

You can see the laser flashes in this new video of Curiosity's work from NASA, which compiles pictures taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover's arm.

While Curiosity has fired its laser at more than 600 different targets since touching down on Mars in August 2012, the rover had never captured images of the resulting sparks before Saturday, NASA officials said.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on its arm to catch the first images of sparks produced by the rover's laser being shot at a rock on Mars.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on its arm to catch the first images of sparks produced by the rover's laser being shot at a rock on Mars. 

Credit: NASA

"This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000 times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that is created," ChemCam deputy principal investigator Sylvestre Maurice, of France's National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Toulouse, said in a NASA statement.

"Each time the laser hits a target, the plasma light is caught and analyzed by ChemCam's spectrometers," Maurice added. "What the new images add is confirmation that the size and shape of the spark are what we anticipated under Martian conditions."

The rock, which rover team members named "Nova," sports a layer of dust and is rich in aluminum, silicon and sodium, researchers said. Its composition is similar to other stones Curiosity has zapped recently.

NASA Mars Curiosity spots a heavy metal meteorite - Lebanon

2-meter wide iron meteorite dubbed “Lebanon,” as imaged by Curiosity’s ChemCam and Mastcam on May 25, 2014. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /LANL /CNES /IRAP /LPGNantes /CNRS /IAS /MSSS

Talk about heavy metal! This shiny, lumpy rock spotted by NASA's Curiosity rover is likely made mostly of iron, and came from outer space!

It's an iron meteorite, similar to ones found in years past by Curiosity's forerunners Spirit and Opportunity, but is considerably larger than any of the ones the MER rovers came across… in fact, at 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide this may very well be the biggest meteorite ever discovered on Mars!

The picture above was made by combining high-resolution circular images (outlined in white) acquired with the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of Curiosity's ChemCam instrument with colour and context from the rover's Mastcam.

The images were taken on mission Sol 640 (May 25, 2014) and have been adjusted to simulate more Earth-like illumination.

Dubbed "Lebanon," the large meteorite has a smaller fragment lying alongside it, named "Lebanon B."

While iron meteorites are fairly common on Earth, on Mars they are by far the most common types of meteorites that have been discovered, if just for the sheer fact that they are highly resistant to erosion.

Original raw Mastcam (right) image of Lebanon and Lebanon B from Sol 640. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /MSSS

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity: New Mount Sharp panorama in transit

Curiosity rover panorama of Mount Sharp captured on June 6, 2014 (Sol 651) during traverse inside Gale Crater. Note rover wheel tracks at left. 

She will eventually ascend the mountain at the ‘Murray Buttes’ at right later this year. 

Assembled from Mastcam color camera raw images and stitched by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer. 

Credit: NASA /JPL /MSSS /Marco Di Lorenzo

Within the past Martian day on Friday, June 6, NASA's rover Curiosity captured a stunning new panorama of towering Mount Sharp and the treacherous sand dunes below which she must safely traverse before reaching the mountains foothills, while in transit to her primary destination.

See our brand new Mount Sharp photo mosaic above – taken coincidentally by humanity's emissary on Mars on the 70th anniversary of D-Day on Earth.

Basically she's eating desiccated dirt while running a Martian marathon.

Having said 'Goodbye Kimberley' after drilling her third bore hole deep into a cold red slab of enticing bumpy textures of Martian sandstone in the name of science, our intrepid mega Rover Curiosity is trundling along with all deliberate speed towards the inviting slopes of sedimentary rocks at the base of mysterious Mount Sharp which hold clues to the habitability of the Red Planet.

The sedimentary layers of Mount Sharp, which reaches 3.4 miles (5.5 km) into the Martian sky, is the six wheeled robots ultimate destination inside Gale Crater because it holds caches of water altered minerals.

Such minerals could possibly mark locations that sustained potential Martian microbial life forms, past or present, if they ever existed.

The 1 ton robot is driving on a path towards the Murray Buttes which lies across the dunes on the right side of Mount Sharp as seen in our photo mosaic above, with wheel tracks on the left side.

She will eventually ascend the mountain at the 'Murray Buttes' after crossing the sand dunes.

Mars Rover Curiosity’s panoramic view departing Mount Remarkable and ‘The Kimberley Waypoint’ where rover conducted 3rd drilling campaign inside Gale Crater on Mars. 

The navcam raw images were taken on Sol 630, May 15, 2014, stitched and colorized. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Rover Curiosity still has roughly another 4 kilometers of driving to go to reach the foothills of Mount Sharp sometime later this year.

Approximately four weeks ago, Curiosity successfully completed her 3rd drilling campaign since landing at the science waypoint region called "The Kimberley" on May 5, Sol 621, into the 'Windjana' rock target at the base of a 16 foot tall ( 5 Meter) hill called Mount Remarkable.

Mars was far wetter and warmer – and more conducive to the origin of life – billions of years ago.

The fresh hole drilled into "Windjana" was 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter and about 2.6 inches (6.5 centimeters) deep and resulted in a mound of dark grey coloured drill tailings piled around. It looked different from the initial holes drilled at Yellowknife Bay in the spring of 2013.

Composite photo mosaic shows deployment of NASA Rover Curiosity robotic arm and two holes after drilling into ‘Windjana’ sandstone rock on May 5, 2014, Sol 621, at Mount Remarkable as missions third drill target for sample analysis by rover’s chemistry labs. 

The Navcam raw images were stitched together from several Martian days up to Sol 621, May 5, 2014 and coloured. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Windjana lies some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) southwest of Yellowknife Bay.

Curiosity then successfully delivered pulverized and sieved samples to the pair of onboard miniaturised chemistry labs; the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) and the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument (SAM), for chemical and compositional analysis.

Before departing, Curiosity blasted the hole multiple times with her million watt laser on the Mast mounted Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument , leaving no doubt of her capabilities or intentions.

And she completed an up close examination of the texture and composition of 'Windjana' with the MAHLI camera and spectrometers at the end of her 7-foot-long (2 meter) arm to glean every last drop of science before moving on.

NASA MSL Mars: Curiosity Rover pulls into Kimberly and spies curvy terrain for drilling

Martian landscape with rows of curved rock outcrops at ‘Kimberly’ in the foreground and spectacular Mount Sharp on the horizon. 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover pulled into Kimberly waypoint dominated by layered rock outcrops as likely drilling site. 

This coloured navcam camera photomosaic was assembled from imagery taken on Sol 576 (Mar. 20, 2014). 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /Marco Di Lorenzo /Ken Kremer

NASA's Curiosity rover has just pulled into gorgeous terrain chock full of curvy rock outcrops at Kimberly that's suitable for contact science and drilling action, according to the mission team.

The six wheeled Martian dune buggy drove into the dazzling Kimberly waypoint this week after traversing a swath of otherworldly dune fields since passing through a gateway known as the 'Dingo Gap' sand dune some six weeks ago.

The robot's arm has been deployed to investigate the most scientifically productive spots to touch Kimberly's textured outcrops for detailed scrutiny.

The science team has been hunting for tasty rock outcrops suitable for the first drilling campaign since she departed the dried out lakebed at Yellowknife Bay in July 2013 and began her epic trek across the floor of Gale Crater towards the base of Mount Sharp.

With each passing Sol, or Martian day, Mount Sharp looms larger and larger and the historical layers with deposits of hydrated minerals potentially indicative of an alien habitable zone come ever clearer into focus.

About a month ago on Feb. 19 (Sol 548), Curiosity couldn't resist the urge to pause mid dune drive, just like a tourist, and snap fabulous imagery of multiple rows of striated rocks at the Junda outcrop – see our mosaics below.

Junda appeared remarkably similar to Kimberly, about 1 kilometer back.

So after executing a final series of short bumps edging ever closer to the outcrops this week, Curiosity parked at the periphery of Kimberly on Thursday, March 20, Sol 576, and captured breathtaking imagery of the rocky rows dominated by towering Mount Sharp on the distant horizon.

"The images [at Kimberly] show nice outcrops in front of the rover, suitable for contact science," according to science team member Ken Herkenhoff in a mission update.

Curiosity looks back at Martian sand dunes and rover tracks after passing by Junda outcrop (right) on Sol 548 (Feb. 19, 2014) with Gale Crater rim and Mount Sharp on the distant horizon. Navcam colorized photomosaic. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /Marco Di Lorenzo /Ken Kremer

This weekend, the state of the art robot is conducting contact science with the cameras and spectrometers on the terminus of the 7 foot long robotic arm and the mast mounted ChemCam laser and high resolution cameras to determine the best spot for drilling and sampling.

The team commanded Curiosity to clean out the arms CHIMRA sample handling mechanism in anticipation of boring into the Martian outcrops and delivering powdery, pulverized samples of cored Martian rocks to the SAM and CheMin miniaturised chemistry labs waiting patiently inside the robots belly to eat something exciting from the Red Planet.

"The arm will be deployed to "thwack" and vibrate CHIMRA to clean out any remnants of the "John Klein" [drilling] sample, followed by Mastcam and RMI imaging of the CHIMRA sieve," says Herkenhoff.

Scientists directed Curiosity on a pinpoint drive to Kimberly after their interest was piqued by orbital images taken by the powerful telescopic camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) circling overhead.

"At Kimberly, we see three terrain types exposed and a relatively dust-free surface," said science team collaborator Katie Stack, California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena.

The missions science focus has shifted to "search for that subset of habitable environments which also preserves organic carbon," says Curiosity Principal Investigator John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover will likely drill into this layered rock outcrop, near the center of the mosaic, at the Kimberly waypoint. 

This photomosaic was assembled from high resolution Mastcam 34 camera images taken on Sol 574 (March 18, 2014). 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /Marco Di Lorenzo /Ken Kremer

NASA's Curiosity Rover Fires 100,000th ChemCam Laser Shot on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity fires its mast-mounted ChemCam laser at a rock target in this artist's illustration. 

The laser has fired more than 100,000 shots on Mars.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's trigger-happy Curiosity rover has fired its 100,000th laser shot on Mars, a science milestone in its mission to determine what rocks on the Red Planet are made of, NASA announced Thursday (Dec. 5).

Each laser pulse shot by the Curiosity rover packs the power nearly 1 million light bulbs — strong enough to vaporize rock and dust from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away.

"#PewPewPew I've fired my ChemCam laser 100,000+ times on Mars for SCIENCE!" Curiosity's team wrote in the voice of the rover in a Twitter post Thursday.

Originating from the French-made ChemCam instrument on Curiosity's "head," these beams are used to study the chemical composition of Mars.

ChemCam has a spectrometer that analyzes the light emitted by the zapped targets on Mars.

The instrument is sensitive enough to detect light from every element on the periodic table.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is equipped with a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to fire lasers at targets. 

In late October 2013, a Martian rock called "Ithaca," that received the rover's 100,000th zapping.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech /LANL /CNES /IRAP

The 100,000th laser firing came as Curiosity was shooting a target called "Ithaca" in late October, according to NASA.

Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and principal investigator for ChemCam, said the laser-firing instrument has exceeded expectations.

"The information we've gleaned from the instrument will continue to enhance our understanding of the Red Planet, and will nicely complement information from the other nine instruments aboard Curiosity as we continue our odyssey to Mount Sharp," Wiens said in a statement from Los Alamos.

Rising 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the center of Mars' huge Gale Crater — where Curiosity landed in August 2012 — Mount Sharp is the rover's main destination.

Scientists hope Curiosity, which is about the size of a small SUV, will uncover clues about the ancient environment and habitability of Mars while scouring the foothills of the mountain.

The Curiosity rover has already made some amazing discoveries on Mars using ChemCam and its other instruments.

Besides findings that Mars had a rather wet past, Curiosity recently helped scientists determine that each cubic foot of surface soil on Mars is made up of 2 percent water, which may be enough to quench the thirst of future astronauts.

"ChemCam was designed to fire one million shots, so we’ll have lots of stories to tell later on," Wiens added.

NASA Mars Curiosity Fires Laser 100X To Create Soil Indent - Time-Lapse Video

Laser shots that harness a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second were fired by MSL's ChemCam instrument into a soil target named 'Sutton Inlier'. 

Sixteen frames from the 20 minutes experiment are time-lapsed/looped.

Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Nasa Mars Rover Curiosity: Rock Dust sample

Two compact laboratories inside NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars. 

The powder comes from Curiosity drilling into rock target "John Klein" on Feb. 8. 

One or more additional portions from the same initial sample may be delivered to the instruments as analysis proceeds.

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the first sample of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows details of rock texture and colour in an area where the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT) brushed away dust that was on the rock. 

This rock target, "Wernecke," was brushed on the 169th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's mission on Mars (Jan. 26, 2013). 

This image was recorded on Sol 173 (Jan. 30, 2013).

The image shows nine small pits created by the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser during its analysis of the target, one of four potential drill targets considered. Ultimately, this site was not chosen for the rover's first drilling. 

The rest of the features are natural to the rock, and include fractures, white veins, gray and white nodules, pits and tiny dark grains. Remaining clumps and specks of dust can also be seen. The scale bar at lower left is 0.12 inches (3 millimeters).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Honeybee Robotics/LANL/CNES

NASA Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Nested Close-Ups of Rock 'Jake Matijevic'

This image combines photographs taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at three different distances from the first Martian rock that NASA's Curiosity rover touched with its arm. 

The three exposures were taken during the 47th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 23, 2012).

The team has named the target rock "Jake Matijevic." The scale bar is 4 centimeters (1.6 inches).

MAHLI imaged Jake Matijevic from distances of about 10 inches, or 25 centimeters (context image); about 2 inches, or 5 centimeters (larger white box); and about 1 inch, or 2.5 centimeters (smaller white box).

The series nested into this one image takes advantage of MAHLI's adjustable focus.

MAHLI reveals that the target rock has a relatively smooth, gray surface with some glinty facets reflecting sunlight and reddish dust collecting in recesses in the rock.

Jake Matijevic is a dark, apparently uniform rock that was selected as a desirable target because it allowed the science team to compare results of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument and the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, both of which provide information about the chemical elements in a target.

APXS, like MAHLI, is on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. It is placed in contact with a rock to take a reading. ChemCam shoots laser pulses at a target from the top of the rover's mast.

Jake Matijevic was also the first rock target for MAHLI, which was deployed to document the APXS and ChemCam analysis areas.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Image: Rock named 'Jake Matijevic' Holds Surprises

This image shows where NASA's Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study a rock known as "Jake Matijevic" in late September 2012. 

The red dots indicate where Curiosity fired its laser at the rock. 

The circular black and white images are ChemCam images to examine the laser burns. 

Purple circles show spots where Curiosity used its Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to study the rock.

CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity: ChemCam Laser-Zapped it's First Rock Sample

This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the French designed Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. 

The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam.

The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock.

The test took place on Aug. 19, 2012.

In the composite, the fist-sized rock, called "Coronation," is highlighted.

Coronation is the first rock on any extraterrestrial planet to be investigated with such a laser test.

The widest context view in this composite comes from Curiosity's Navigation Camera. The magnified views in the insets come from ChemCam's camera, the Remote Micro-Imager.

The area shown in the circular inset is 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) in diameter. It was taken before the rock was hit with the laser.

The area covered in the further-magnified square inset is 8 millimeters (about one-third of an inch) across.

It combines information from images taken before and after the test, subtracting the "before" image from the "after" image to make the changes in the rock visible.

ChemCam hit Coronation with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivered more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.

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

This initial use of the laser on Mars served as target practice for characterizing the instrument but 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.

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 France's national space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and research agency, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

NASA - ChemCam Generating Sparks

This image from testing of ChemCam shows a ball of luminous plasma erupting from the surface of an iron pyrite crystal in the sample chamber approximately 10 feet from the instrument. The laser beam itself is invisible.

The ChemCam instrument, built for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, uses a pulsed laser beam to vaporize a pinhead-size target, producing a flash of light from the ionized material -- plasma -- that can be analyzed to identify chemical elements in the target.

ChemCam was designed and built by a U.S.-French team led by Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N. M.; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (the French government space agency); and the Centre d'Étude Spatiale des Rayonnements at the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL