Watch out Martians, our next rover will be arriving shortly, and it's armed with a laser weapon. No, this isn't the beginning of an Earthling invasion, it's all in the name of science.
When it arrives in 2010, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will scour the surface of the Red Planet, searching for evidence of past and current life. Since life will probably be protecting itself against the harsh ultraviolet radiation that reaches the Martian surface, you've got to dig, drill, and look inside rocks.
One tool to see what's under the surface is the Los Alamos ChemCam instrument. It's a laser that MSL will use to blast away at the rocks in its vicinity. Unlike the current Mars Exploration Rovers, which have to roll up, and grind away the surface of rocks, MSL's ChemCam vaporizes a small amount of rock at a distance. It can then analyze the chemicals in the plasma of vaporized material to decide if the rock warrants further study.
This baby's got range. It can operate on targets between 1.2 and 9
meters away (4 and 30 feet). The laser emits very short pulses of 7
nanoseconds through a telescope that focuses the beam. The target spot on the rock experiences 10 megawatts per square millimeter.
It's got flexibility too. The laser is mounted atop a mast that projects above the rover. It can swivel and fire in a 360-degree view around the rover.
The ChemCam instrument is currently being completed by the Los Alamos
National Laboratory. Once it has been fully integrated and tested, it'll be shipped out to NASA/JPL in 2008 for installation into the rover.
You can see some cool videos of the rover and its laser in action here.
