Curiosity rover used a laser gun spectrometer over 100,000 times

It seems to be the rover Curiosity recently went to the Red Planet, but have done a lot. Since arriving on Mars on August 6, 2012, the rover was able to clarify many questions about Mars, including important issues such as the presence of liquid water in the past of the planet (and the present), the geological structure of the planet and more. A very important role in many discoveries played spectrometer ChemCam. The other day, a laser gun, which is part of the spectrometer, "shot" in a 100-thousandth time.

This number gives an idea of ​​how many experiments have already been delivered, and not only with the participation of the spectrometer. With regard to the latter, ChemCam works in two steps. The first - a "shot" laser gun, which turns into a gaseous state a small amount of rock. Then the camera rover gets "snapshots" of the resulting gases. Well, and then analyzes the information received.

For the first time a laser gun ChemCam spectrometer was involved August 20, 2012, two weeks after landing a rover on Mars.

Via upi.com

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/205110/