Science News: Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity ? ChemCam

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Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity ? ChemCam

How do you run chemical tests at a geologic site millions of miles away from you to see what the rocks and soil are made of? Curiosity?s new instrument ChemCam, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is designed to determine how much light is emitted at each frequency by a geologic sample when it?s heated by a laser beam. Since different materials have different light-emission patterns, measuring the patterns shows what materials emitted them.
Slide presentations giving a general view of Los Alamos contributions to ChemCam:

?Mechanical & System Engineering Challenges Associated with the Development of the ChemCam Instrument for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory?
?Los Alamos National Laboratory: A National Science Laboratory?  (page 29 of 33 in this slide presentation illustrates Los Alamos contributions to the Mars Science Laboratory ?Curiosity? in detail.)
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Source: Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity ? ChemCam