Congratulations to
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the successful landing of
Curiosity last night! The huge (2000 pounds!) explorer, equipped with a huge science deck, used a combination of parachutes, rockets and belaying tethers to touch down right on target, right on schedule.
 |
| Photo courtesy of NASA |
Curiosity has plenty of instruments on board, but the laser breakdown spectroscopy system is among the newer ones for a Mars mission.
 |
| Photo courtesy of NASA |
It works like this: zap a spot with a high intensity laser, ionize the material to a plasma, use a spectrometer to read the elemental composition from the emission spectra. Unlike the carbide teeth on a grinder wheel, lasers never get dull, so as long as Curiosity has power from its nuclear cell, the science can continue.
 |
| http://twitpic.com/ag43lt/full |
Good luck, Curiosity!
===== Feel free to comment on this or any other post.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for leaving a comment. The staff at Landless will treat it with the same care that we would bestow on a newly hatched chick. By the way, no pressure or anything, but have you ever considered subscribing to Landless via RSS?