It is planned that this weekend Curiosity Rover ("Curiosity") uses its laser, which is able to "evaporate" stones. The test should pass before a plain Rover will make the first trip to Mars.

With a laser, which is part of an instrument called ChemCam ( used for contactless analysis of samples), scientists intend to melt one of Martian pebbles, called N165.

According to scientists, rock is located at a distance of 2.7 meters from Curiosity ("Curiosity"), while the reach of the instrument ChemCam equal to 7.6 meters. ChemCam, a shortened version from the "Chemistry and Camera Instrument", may chip part of breed, then the tool is able to detect the type of the breed, to reveal its chemical components. This is one of the 10 instruments, which are equipped with Curiosity Rover.

Lead researcher Roger Vince (Roger Wiens) from Los Alamos national laboratory: "Our team was waiting for this event for eight long years, at this stage, nothing should prevent this... We hope that already next week we will talk about the results of the first tests of laser Curiosity..."

Recall that Curiosity landed on the Red planet in a huge crater Gail. The next step is the first trip to Mars. It is planned that it would be preceded by a short test drive, scheduled for Monday - Tuesday (20 or 21 August, according to earth time).

In addition, scientists today announced the location selected for the first trip Curiosity. This region, called Glenel (the name given to the team mission), and located at a distance about 400 meters to the East from the place of landing of the Rover. This region was chosen by the researchers, because it is in Glenel are three particularly interesting geological structures that Curiosity and the will to learn.

It is planned that the Curiosity Rover will stay in Glenelg about a month. There should be tested drilling device, which will plunge into the soil of the red planet deeper than it could do another Rover.