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.

Hubble Image: Observing the Heart of NGC 5793

This new Hubble image is centered on NGC 5793, a spiral galaxy over 150 million light-years away in the constellation of Libra. 

This galaxy has two particularly striking features: a beautiful dust lane and an intensely bright center. much brighter than that of our own galaxy, or indeed those of most spiral galaxies we observe.

NGC 5793 is a Seyfert galaxy. These galaxies have incredibly luminous centers that are thought to be caused by hungry supermassive black holes, black holes that can be billions of times the size of the sun, that pull in and devour gas and dust from their surroundings.

This galaxy is of great interest to astronomers for many reasons. For one, it appears to house objects known as masers.

Whereas lasers emit visible light, masers emit microwave radiation. The term "masers" comes from the acronym Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Maser emission is caused by particles that absorb energy from their surroundings and then re-emit this in the microwave part of the spectrum.

Naturally occurring masers, like those observed in NGC 5793, can tell us a lot about their environment; we see these kinds of masers in areas where stars are forming.

In NGC 5793 there are also intense mega-masers, which are thousands of times more luminous than the sun.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Perlman (Florida Institute of Technology)

LLCD: Laser demo reveals bright future for space communication

Compared to the days of dial-up, today's web-sites load at lightning speed. 

Just like you need your web-pages load quickly and securely, NASA scientists and engineers want the same quick connectivity with their data-gathering spacecraft. 

To meet these demands NASA is moving away from their form of dial-up (radio frequency-based communication), to their own version of high-speed Internet; using laser communications. 

Credit: NASA

The completion of the 30-day Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) mission has revealed that the possibility of expanding broadband capabilities in space using laser communications is as bright as expected.

Hosted aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), for its ride to lunar orbit, the LLCD was designed to confirm laser communication capabilities from a distance of almost a quarter-of-a-million miles.

In addition to demonstrating record-breaking data download and upload speeds to the moon at 622 megabits per second (Mbps) and 20 Mbps, respectively, LLCD also showed that it could operate as well as any NASA radio system.

"Throughout our testing we did not see anything that would prevent the operational use of this technology in the immediate future," said Don Cornwell, LLCD mission manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

For example, LLCD demonstrated error-free communications during broad daylight, including operating when the moon was to within three degrees of the sun as seen from Earth.

LLCD also demonstrated error-free communications when the moon was low on the horizon, less than 4 degrees, as seen from the ground station, which also demonstrated that wind and atmospheric turbulence did not significantly impact the system. LLCD was even able to communicate through thin clouds, an unexpected bonus.

Operationally, LLCD demonstrated the ability to download data from the LADEE spacecraft itself. "We were able to download LADEE's entire stored science and spacecraft data [1 gigabyte] in less than five minutes, which was only limited to our 40 Mbps connection to that data within LADEE" said Cornwell.

Using LADEE's onboard radio system would take several days to complete a download of the same stored data.

Additionally, LLCD was to prove the integrity of laser technology to send not only error-free data but also uncorrupted commands and telemetry or monitoring messages to and from the spacecraft over the laser link.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden congratulates the LLCD team on their successful demonstration of laser communications in a video that was relayed via laser to and from the moon. 

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

LLCD also demonstrated the ability to "hand-off" the laser connection from one ground station to another, just as a cellphone does a hand-off from one cell tower to another.

An additional achievement was the ability to operate LLCD without using LADEE's radio at all.

"We were able to program LADEE to awaken the LLCD space terminal and have it automatically point and communicate to the ground station at a specific time without radio commands. This demonstrates that this technology could serve as the primary communications system for future NASA missions," said Cornwell.

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 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).

LAMIS: A Green Chemistry Alternative for Remote-Controlled Laser Spectroscopy

LAMIS uses the energy of a high-powered laser beam to ablate a tiny spot on a sample, creating a plasma plume for spectroscopic analysis that reveals chemical elements and their isotopes. 

(Image courtesy of Applied Spectra, Inc.)

At some point this year, after NASA's rover Curiosity has landed on Mars, a laser will fire a beam of infrared light at a rock or soil sample.

This will "ablate" or vaporise a microgram-sized piece of the target, generating a plume of ionised gas or plasma, which will be analysed by spectrometers to identify the target's constituent elements.

Future Mars rovers, however, will be able to do even more. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in collaboration with Applied Spectra, Inc., have developed an advanced version of this laser technology that can also analyze a target's constituent isotopes.

This expanded capability will enable future rovers for the first time to precisely date the geological age of Martian samples.

From left, Alexander Bol'shakov, Xianglei Mao and Rick Russo are part of the research team that developed LAMIS, a green chemistry laser spectroscopy technology that can be operated across vast distances. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab)

Rick Russo, a scientist with Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division and a pioneer in laser ablation spectroscopy, led the development of LAMIS - for Laser Ablation Molecular Isotopic Spectrometry.

As with the earlier Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technology being used on rover Curiosity, the basic premise is to use the energy of a high-powered laser beam focused to a tiny spot on the surface of a sample to create a plasma plume for analysis.

Each species of atoms or ions within the plasma will emit light with signature spectral emission peaks.

However, whereas LIBS only measures the optical emission spectra of atoms and ions, LAMIS measures the emission spectra of molecules and molecular ions.

This enables LAMIS to identify the specific isotopes of a chemical element within the plasma plume.

"Relative to atomic emission, molecular spectra can exhibit significantly larger isotopic shifts due to the contributions of the vibrational and rotational motion in the molecule," Russo says.

"The trick is to be patient and wait for the hot atoms and ions in the plasma to collide and merge with the ambient environment to form an oxide, or a nitride or fluoride, and then collect the molecular light emissions."

Isotopes of Strontium
Russo and his research group have been using LAMIS to study isotopes of strontium, an alkaline earth metal commonly found in geological and natural materials.

Although strontium's major isotopes are stable (strontium-90 being a notable exception), the percentage of strontium-87 will naturally increase over time as a result of the decay of radioactive rubidium.

Comparing the ratio of strontium-87 to strontium-86 is a standard tool for age dating in geochronology, oceanography and archeology. The ratio of these strontium isotopes is also used to date the origin of historic or forensic samples.

Currently, the standard means of measuring strontium isotopic ratios is by mass spectrometry technologies that involve time-consuming, labour-intensive laboratory sample dissolution work with an extensive array of instrumentation.

This sample dissolution work generates substantial chemical waste. LAMIS offers a green chemistry alternative that is faster, less expensive and can be carried out from across vast distances.

"LAMIS is not yet as sensitive or precise as mass spectrometry but unlike mass spectrometry it does not require chemical dissolution sample preparation, vacuum chambers and a laboratory infrastructure," Russo says.

"All we need is a laser beam and an optical spectrometer and we can perform real-time isotopic analyses of samples at ambient pressures and temperatures."

LAMIS represents what may be the only practical means of determining the geochronology of samples on Mars or other celestial bodies in the Solar System.

Current age estimates of such bodies suffer from uncertainties in the billions of years. That said, LAMIS also has many important applications here on Earth.

Strontium isotope ratios have been a focus in the field of medicine for both treatment and diagnostic purposes.

Face Recognition

There is a new "face" in face recognition and this could be in the form of a dot. This is what Associate Professor Ajmal Mian from the University of Western Australia is working on.

Associate Professor Ajmal Mian is an expert in face recognition and has been in the field for 8 years. His new research study is focused on utilizing satellite technology in order to identify facial features that are located under the skin.

There is also a possibility that people who utilized cosmetic surgery to alter their face could be recognized through the use of this technology.

He further explained his research stating that "multi-spectral imaging can be used to measure light reflected off a face at hundreds of discrete wavelengths in the visible spectrum and beyond".

"Recognition based on sets of facial images from surveillance cameras, YouTube videos, Google Images or personal photo albums is more accurate because they contain more information," he said.

Face recognition technology is being used increasingly for computer log-ons, identity checks and surveillance, and is a boom industry around the world.

"It can be used in any kind of machine such as mobile phones, computers and robots. It's the most user-friendly way to authenticate someone and is now so sophisticated that machines can identify a face no matter what the expression.

"Humans are very good at finding a familiar face in a crowd but less able to identify someone they may have seen only once. This is where machines outperform people because they can memorise images and never tire of matching them to faces in a crowd."

Associate Professor Ajmal said face recognition technology was better than fingerprinting because it didn't require special equipment or an expert to verify the results.

Also, any part of a face could be used, and many images of a person's face - including different expressions and poses - could be merged to make a composite image which was more meaningful to the machine.

"Humans can recognise a person regardless of whether they're laughing, frowning, crying or sleeping. Machines may soon be able to do the same."

Associate Professor Mian is the only West Australian to have won the Australasian Distinguished Dissertation Award from CORE (The Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia).

He has won two prestigious national fellowships: the Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Australian Research Fellowship, and has written more than 50 high-impact papers including more than 30 as first author.

Lasers Measure Earth's Rotation and Wobble

The Earth spins around once every 24 hours on its axis, creating the continuous cycle of day and night but this rotation isn't as straightforward as it sounds: Forces large and small cause the Earth to wobble as it spins. This wobbling can pose a problem for navigation systems like GPS.

Scientists working with lasers and mirrors are refining a new system to track the Earth's rotation and its kinks.

The pull of gravity from the sun and the moon contribute to the planet's wobble.

So do variations in atmospheric pressure, ocean loading and the wind, which change the position of the Earth's axis relative to the surface. Together their effect is called the Chandler wobble, and it has a period of 435 days.

Another force causes the rotational axis to move over a period of a year. This "annual wobble" is due to the Earth's elliptical orbit around the sun.

Between these two effects, the Earth's axis migrates irregularly along a circular path with a radius of up to 20 feet (6 meters).

Pinning down the overall wobble of the planet's rotation is key to keeping certain tracking systems accurate.

Currently, this is now done through a complicated process that involves 30 radio telescopes around the globe that measure the direction between Earth and specific quasars, a type of galaxy that is assumed to be stationary relative to the Earth.

A better system
In the mid-1990s, scientists of Germany's Technische Universitaet Muenchen and Federal Agency for Cartography joined forces with researchers at New Zealand's University of Canterbury to develop a simpler method for tracking the Chandler wobble and annual wobble.

"We also wanted to develop an alternative that would enable us to eliminate any systematic errors," said station director, Karl Ulrich Schreiber. "After all, there was always a possibility that the reference points in space were not actually stationary."

The scientists had the idea of building a ring laser similar to ones used in aircraft guidance systems – only millions of times more exact.

"At the time, we were almost laughed off. Hardly anyone thought that our project was feasible," Schreiber said in a statement.

Yet at the end of the 1990s, work on the world's most stable ring laser got under way at Wettzell Geodetic Observatory, in the Bavarian Forest of southeast Germany.

The installation includes two counter-rotating laser beams that travel around a square path with mirrors in the corners, which form a closed beam path (hence the name "ring laser").

Ring around the laser
When the assembly rotates, the co-rotating light has farther to travel than the counter-rotating light. The beams adjust their wavelengths, causing the optical frequency to change. The scientists can use this difference to calculate the rotational velocity the instrumentation experiences.

"The principle is simple," Schreiber said. "The biggest challenge was ensuring that the laser remains stable enough for us to measure the weak geophysical signal without interference — especially over a period of several months."

With some tweaks to the system, the researchers have succeeded in corroborating the Chandler and annual wobble measurements made from the radio telescopes.

They now aim to make the apparatus even more accurate, enabling them to determine changes in the Earth's rotational axis over a single day.

The scientists also plan to make the ring laser capable of running continuously for a period of years. "In future," Schreiber said, "we want to be able to just pop down into the basement and find out how fast the Earth is accurately turning right now."

ESA:‘Star wars’ laser offers new insight into Earth’s atmosphere

With the need to understand global change one of today’s most pressing scientific challenges, ESA is exploring novel techniques for future space missions.

Firing laser pulses between satellites is promising a step up in tracking greenhouse gases.

More renowned for their appeal as holiday destinations, the Spanish Canary Islands recently played host to an experiment that involved shooting laser beams from a peak on La Palma to Tenerife.

Over the course of two weeks, the night sky lit up with green pulses of light between the two islands – looking more like a scene from a Star Wars film than an experiment to help understand Earth’s atmosphere.

The experiment was devised to test the concept of using ‘infrared differential absorption spectroscopy’ as a way of making extremely accurate measurements of trace gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.



The approach links two satellites orbiting Earth: one acts as a transmitter and the other acts as a receiver, with the atmosphere being probed as the beam travels between them.

Radio occultation involves tracking signals from satellites as they rise or set behind Earth and is a well-established method of sensing the atmosphere using microwave signals.

This new concept, however, uses shortwave infrared laser pulses. At the right wavelength, the atmospheric molecules affect the beam.

This information can then be used to calculate concentrations of trace gases, and potentially wind.

Repeated at different altitudes, a vertical profile stretching from the lower stratosphere to the upper troposphere could be built up.

As an important part any new development, the theory has to be put to the test.

Read more: Esa Website portal

NASA MARS: Daybreak at Gale Crater - Rover Curiosity's Landing Site

This computer-generated images depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater, beginning to catch morning light.

Northward is to the left. Gale is the crater with a mound inside it near the center of the image. NASA selected Gale Crater as the landing site for Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory.

The mission's rover will be placed on the ground in a northern portion of Gale crater in August 2012.

Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor. The intended landing site is at 4.5 degrees south latitude, 137.4 degrees east longitude.

This view was created using three-dimensional information from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which flew on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. The vertical dimension is not exaggerated. Colour information is based on general Mars color characteristics.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Boeing and BAE develop laser weapon

Both Boeing and BAE Systems have been working on laser weapon systems for use at sea for a number of years and now the two companies have teamed up to develop the Mk 38 Mod 2 Tactical Laser System for the U.S. Navy.

The system combines both kinetic and directed energy weapons capability by coupling a solid-state high-energy laser weapon module with the Mk 38 Machine Gun System that is already in use on many U.S. Navy vessels.

The Mk 38 Mod 2 is a remotely operated machine gun whose main weapon is the widely used M242 Bushmaster 25-mm Chain Gun - a proven NATO standard auto cannon with 2.5 km (1.5 mile) range and selectable rates of fire.

Boeing says the addition of the laser weapon module will provide high-precision accuracy against surface and air targets such as small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It will also provide the ability to deliver different levels of laser energy, depending on the target and mission objectives.

"The Mk 38 Mod 2 system is revolutionary because it combines kinetic and directed energy weapons capability," said Michael Rinn, Boeing Directed Energy Systems (DES) division vice president..

"Our approach is an affordable solution for the customer, because this system can be integrated seamlessly into existing shipboard command interfaces."

Boeing and BAE Systems say they have been working together to develop a Tactical Laser System that can be integrated with existing Navy gun mounts for two years.

But the companies have only just signed a teaming agreement to develop the Mk 38 Mod 2 Tactical Laser System for the U.S. Navy following BAE being awarded an initial US$2.8 million contract in March 2011 to demonstrate such a system.

Scientists turn living cell into laser

For the first time, scientists have created a laser using a living cell.

To make this biological marvel, the researchers used a single human kidney cell, a bit of jellyfish protein, a couple mirrors and blue light.

A typical laser has a “gain medium” — a material that amplifies light given off by another source — and an “optical cavity” — mirrors set up in a way that lines up the light waves.

When the outside source of light is trained on the gain medium its atoms become excited and release photons.

As the photons ricochet between the mirrors, passing through the gain medium over and over again, they stimulate other atoms to release more photons. While the photons would normally exit in random directions the way light comes out of a flashlight, the mirrors direct the wavelengths into one beam, forming a laser.

The experiment

In this case, the researchers made their gain medium out of the jellyfish protein — green fluorescent protein (GFP) — which is what makes jellyfish bioluminescent and is widely used in cell biology to label cells.

They then engineered human embryonic kidney cells to produce GFP, and placed one such cell between two mirrors. They trained an outside source of blue light on the cell, which then emitted a laser beam visible with the naked eye.

Quoting researcher Seok-Hyun Yun, an optical physicist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, this Nature News article reports,

The width of the laser beam is “tiny” and “fairly weak” in its brightness compared to traditional lasers … but “an order of magnitude” brighter than natural jellyfish fluorescence, with a “beautiful green” colour.

Surprisingly, the laser didn’t harm the cell in the process — quite a feat considering that even the earliest lasers could drill holes in razor blades.

The future of living lasers

A living laser could have numerous scientific applications, say Yun and co-author Malte Gather, who published their study in Nature Photonics.

Cell biologists could use living lasers to study the structure of cells. As seen in the photo, the cell produces light in an irregular pattern which scientists could study to determine the internal structure of the cell.

Living lasers could be useful in biotechnology and medicine, to create drugs that are activated by light or to treat disease by attacking cells deep within the body. But the main challenge to developing such internal applications is providing the initial outside source of light.

In a press release, Gather says,

“One of our long-term goals will be finding ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology. That could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms. We also hope to be able to implant a structure equivalent to the mirrored chamber right into a cell, which would the next milestone in this research.”

Photo: Microscope image of a single-cell living laser in action. (Nature Photonics and Malte Gather, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Mass. General Hospital.)

Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA): Profiling Mercury's Topography

An artist's rendition of what Mercury’s

core might look like. (Image Credit: NASA)

The purpose of the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) is to measure the topography or surface relief of the northern hemisphere of Mercury. MLA data will be used to create topographic maps, which will help characterize the geologic history of the planet.

For example, topographic maps on Earth are used to show relief, such as mountains or valleys, and features including roads and streams, on a flat piece of paper.

Additionally, this data can be combined with other data to tell us something about Mercury’s global shape and spin axis as well as the size and state of its core.

How it works

The MLA measures the range or distance between the MESSENGER probe and the surface of Mercury using a laser transmitter and receiver. This two step process begins as the transmitter generates a brief laser pulse directed toward the planet.

The light travels to the planet and some is reflected back and detected by the receiver. The time it takes for the light to travel round-trip is recorded by the instrument and can then be converted to a distance.

This is accomplished by a very simple calculation; the round-trip time is multiplied by the speed of light, giving us the round-trip distance. The round-trip distance is then divided by 2 to get the distance one way.

Every second 8 laser pulses are transmitted for a pulse rate of 8 Hz. The round-trip transit time is measured with an accuracy of 2.0 nanoseconds (a nanosecond is a billionth of a second!).

Therefore, the resolution of the topographic data is 0.3 meters. Since the probe is traveling as it transmits laser pulses, range measurements are collected every 100 to 300 meters along its path as in the image below.

Understanding mercury and beyond
Ultimately, the data we gain from this mission will further our knowledge of how the terrestrial planets—including Earth—formed and evolved. To be more specific, detailed topography along with gravity measurements will help us understand the current and historical geology of the planet.

For example, we could determine the thickness of Mercury’s crust which provides insight into the minerals present and the size of the core.

From previous fly-by missions (Mariner 10 in 1974 and 1975) we know that there are several different types of terrains on Mercury, including regions that are heavily cratered like the Earth’s Moon, vast plains, hilly areas, and features that look like long cliffs that are up to 500 kilometers in length and hundreds of meters in height.

Perhaps we will be able to determine the source of these dominant geologic features; were there active volcanoes, active faults, and did the planet contract or shrink as it cooled?

Read more on the Messenger MLA here

Laser rifle: a weapon against pirates

BAE Systems, a British defense company demonstrated how a non-lethal laser weapon can be used to ward off pirates.

Now, American researchers have created a more powerful laser gun that should be more effective against sea bandits.

While the crystalline Neodymium Yttrium Aluminium Garnet laser canon, developed by BAE Systems, can temporarily disorient an assailant with a pulse of blinding light, another prototype called the TR3 Threat Deterrent Laser Rifle is compact and the laser settings can be adjusted to inflict some serious pain.

To learn more about BAE Systems’ laser canon, check out John Herrman’s Smart Planet post here

The TR3, developed by Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems and SPA Defense, can deliver an intense 3-watt green laser at targets up to one and a half miles away. The greater range is most effective when operated at night. The rifle’s re-chargeable lithium-ion battery allows for up to 30 plus minutes of continuous firing.

David Crane of DefenseReview.com got to test out a prototype during the recent Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference or SHOT show and described the experience on his website:

"We got to try the TR3 ourselves, and came away very impressed with it. You can adjust the intense green laser beam’s focus using a dial that surrounds the weapon’s emitter (“barrel”/”muzzle”). You can disperse the beam so that it’s eye-safe for hitting bad guys in the face, or dial the beam into a retina-frying focus."
"Unfortunately, we didn’t shoot video of the TR3 operating, during the demo."

A video produced by the company, shows the TR3 in action does exist but is not currently available in the public domain.

The TR3 is intended for military and defense markets only but it's only a matter of time until this weapon becomes more readily available.

ESA's Heart of Glass: Trackinside

What’s the best way to keep track of medicines or luxury goods? Just give them a number, of course. But what if the item you want to keep your eye on is made of glass?

Thanks to a new laser technology developed for space, a Belgian start-up company called Trackinside is now able to inscribe numbers in glass without cracking, heating or leaving any external marks on the glass.

“It’s the only technology that can mark glass without damaging it,” said Jean Michel Mestrez, Trackinside Managing Director.

The low-impact laser inscribes serial numbers inside, rather than on the surface, of the glass used in medical syringes, perfume vials or drinks bottles.

Herschel telescope at ESTEC, the Netherlands

The laser technology was initially developed in Belgium at the Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL), working with the LASEA CSL-spinoff group, which was initially devoted to developing cleaning processes using lasers.

CSL is a partner of the Belgian Space Technology Platform, ESA’s national technology transfer broker.

There, it was created for things like etching the surfaces of lenses and mirrors that would then be used in space telescopes and measuring equipment.

The ‘femtosecond laser’ works much like the laser used in eye surgery, where it beams energy through the surface of the eye to make incisions deep below.

Soviet Luna 17, Lunokhod Beams Surprising Laser Flashes To Earth

It looks like a creature from science fiction, but Lunokhod 1 is real.

Photo Credit: Lavochkin Association.

Soviet technology was built to last. This was not always a good thing with respect to derelict space craft and near earth debris but in this case it is remarkable.

Luna 17, Lunokhod, a Soviet built robotic lunar rover lost on the dusty plains of the Moon for the past 40 years has been found again, and it is returning surprisingly strong laser pulses to Earth.

"We shined (sic) a laser on Lunokhod 1's position, and we were stunned by the power of the reflection," says Tom Murphy of UC San Diego, who leads the research team that's putting the old robot back to work. "Lunokhod 1 is talking to us loudly and clearly."

Almost forgotten in the lore of the Apollo-era space race, Lunokhod 1 was one of the greatest successes of the old Soviet lunar exploration program. In 1970, Time magazine described the robot's historic landing:

"Three hours after reaching the Moon aboard the latest unmanned Russian Moon probe, Luna 17, Lunokhod I (literally "moonwalker") lumbered down one of two ramps extended by the mother ship and moved forward ... thus taking the first giant step for robotkind on another celestial body."

The remote-controlled rover traveled almost 7 miles during its 11 month lunar tour, relaying thousands of TV images and hundreds of high-resolution panoramas of the Moon back to Earth. It also sampled and analyzed lunar soil at 500 locations.

Then Lunokhod-1 was lost - until last month when NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found it again.

Blu-Ray Laser Phaser!

MATRIX: Boeing Laser Weapon Testing

Boeing recently announced it successfully tracked and shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle with a laser weapon. Actually, it shot down five UAVs at various ranges with the trailer-mounted Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX).

Developed at the request of the Air Force Research Laboratory, MATRIX integrates with standard test-range radar, focusing a single energy beam on moving aerial vehicles and blasting them out of the sky. It's the future of aerial seek and destroy, defending against always-orbiting unmanned craft.