The Rover "Curiosity" (Curiosity) for the first time took advantage of the laser.
Experimental object was a stone the size of a fist, conventionally named Coronation (Coronation).

Within ten seconds, the tool ChemCam (Chemistry and Camera) beat on the cobbles thirty pulses, the capacity of each of which exceeded one million watts, and the duration was approximately five billionths of a second.

The laser energy excited atoms stone turning them into a state of ionized luminous plasma. ChemCam caught the light from the telescope and analyzed it with three spectrometers capable of determining 6 144 wavelengths in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared parts of the spectrum.

"We received excellent range: signal set, " says principal investigator ChemCam Roger Vince from Los Alamos national laboratory. Eight years we created this tool. It's time for revenge!"

The main goal of the experiment was to test the tool and how it works. For example, it would be good to find out any changes in range with each pulse. If so, this may indicate that the stone surface was covered with dust or some other material, and the cobblestone has a different composition.

"The data is even better than during the tests on the Earth - not hide the joy project participant Sylvester Morris of the Institute of astrophysics and planetological studies (France). - They are so rich that it can only marvel at how valuable we will get in the result of thousands of forthcoming research."

The technology is called laser spark spectroscopy. It is also used to determine the composition of objects in different extreme conditions - for example, inside nuclear reactors and on the seabed, for environmental monitoring and detection of cancer. The study of the Coronation was the first example of using this technique in planetology.

Let's remind, "Curiosity" went down on Mars two weeks ago. He has a dozen of carefully selected instruments and two years trying to figure out, could in the Gale crater to exist microbial life.

Prepared according to NASA.