Mars Laser Exam

By On 09/02/2012 · 33 Comments · In Mars Rover

NASA Mars Science Laboratory: “The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity used its laser to examine side-by-side points in a target patch of soil, leaving the marks apparent in this before-and-after comparison.

The two images were taken by ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager from a distance of about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters). The diameter of the circular field of view is about 3.1 inches (7.9 centimeters).

Researchers used ChemCam to study this soil target, named “Beechey,” during the 19th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s mission (Aug. 25, 2012). The observation mode, called a five-by-one raster, is a way to investigate chemical variability at short scale on rock or soil targets. For the Beechey study, each point received 50 shots of the instrument’s laser. The points on the target were studied in sequence left to right. Each shot delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. The energy from the laser excites atoms in the target into a glowing state, and the instrument records the spectra of the resulting glow to identify what chemical elements are present in the target.

The holes seen here have widths of about 0.08 inch to 0.16 inch (2 to 4 millimeters), much larger than the size of the laser spot (0.017 inch or 0.43 millimeter at this distance). This demonstrates the power of the laser to evacuate dust and small unconsolidated grains. A preliminary analysis of the spectra recorded during this raster study show that the first laser shots look alike for each of the five points, but then variability is seen from shot to shot in a given point and from point to point.”

 
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33 Responses to Mars Laser Exam

  1. Jamie White says:
    09/02/2012 at 8:06 AM

    Happy Sunday -- Gotta love a political blog that gives you your morning science lesson.

  2. purple-in-tampa says:
    09/02/2012 at 8:11 AM

    Good Mars story. Why is Obama planning to do a manned mission to the asteroid belt which is between Mars and Jupiter instead of just going to Mars?

    New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly should learn from Tampa how to deal with protesters.

    For the Police and Protesters, a Quieter Convention
    By Collin Moynihan, New York Times, August 31, 2012

    TAMPA, Fla. — By the time the Republican National Convention ended in Tampa, Fla., no windows had been broken, no tear gas had clouded the air and the arrest tally stood at two.

    The lack of disturbances stood in stark contrast to the last three Republican conventions, when street battles between the police and protesters resulted in numerous arrests and prompted a flurry of court fights about police actions.

    Dissidents this week did manage to set off a few disruptions inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where the convention took place, interrupting the speeches of Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan. But outside the hall, both the police and protesters avoided behavior that had led to conflicts at previous conventions. Protesters, including bands of anarchists, were occasionally defiant but entirely peaceful. And the police responded to minor infractions with flexibility rather than aggression.

    There was no shortage of police officers in Tampa wearing helmets and padded vests, and at one point a pickup truck with a powerful sound cannon was deployed. But the police also appeared to cultivate a friendly relationship with protesters, often greeting them on sidewalks and at one point dropping off water and fruit at an encampment of tents and tarps where protesters were sleeping.

  3. jace says:
    09/02/2012 at 8:28 AM

    Amazing pictures from Mars!

    Just think how much better they will be when republicans privatize NASA. Wink

  4. Jamie White says:
    09/02/2012 at 8:35 AM

    Colin Powell Trashes Romney foreign policy advisors.

  5. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 8:56 AM

    Republican Paul Ryan now says he didn’t run a marathon in less than three hours as he claimed in a nationally broadcast interview.

    The vice presidential hopeful acknowledged Saturday he had misstated his marathon time by more than an hour. He released a statement correcting the record after Runner’s World magazine found evidence he had completed one marathon, in 1990, and finished in just over four hours.

    http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2012/09/01/ryan-says-he-misstated-marathon-claim

  6. purple-in-tampa says:
    09/02/2012 at 8:59 AM

    Jamie,

    I will still vote for Colin Powell for President regardless of party if he would run. I would have voted for him in 2008.

  7. jace says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:04 AM

    Sunday Sublime.

    To commemorate V-J day. For all those heroes who have left us and those who remain. A symphony aptly named. Enjoy

  8. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:05 AM

    according to wiki:

    “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

    The eighth commandment according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church[130][131][132]

    The Catechism explains that bearing false witness or “speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving” encompasses all violations of truth.[130] These violations have degrees of gravity depending on the “intentions of the one who lies and the harms suffered by its victims.”[133] Listed as follows, these are:
    1.False witness and perjury: statements made publicly in court which obstruct justice by condemning the innocent or exonerating the guilty, or which may increase the punishment of the accused.
    2.Rash judgement: believing, without sufficient evidence, statements that accuse another of moral faults.
    3.Detraction: the disclosure of another’s faults without a valid reason.
    4.Calumny: lying to harm a person’s reputation and providing opportunity to others to make false judgements concerning them.
    5.Flattery: “speech to deceive others for our benefit.”
    6.Bragging, boasting, or mocking: speech which either only honors oneself or dishonors others.[130][134]

    The Church requires those who have damaged the reputation of another to “make reparation for the untruth they have communicated.”[130][134] However, it does not require a person to reveal a truth to someone who does not have a right to know, and teaches respect for a right to privacy.[130][134] Priests are prohibited from violating the seal of confession[134] no matter how grave the sin or its impact on society.

    Included in the Church teachings of this commandment is the requirement for Christians to bear witness to their faith “without equivocation” in situations that require it.[130][135] The use of modern media in spreading untruths, by individuals, businesses or governments, is condemned

  9. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:15 AM

  10. Flatus says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:28 AM

    Thanks, Jamie, that’s the Gen Powell I knew.

  11. Flatus says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:35 AM

    Jace, you got me on this morning’s music. I thought you were going to do the Holst. You did better!

    Youngster that I was, I remember playing with my friends chanting, “We’re going to burn Hirohito’s house down.” I’m glad we didn’t.

  12. purple-in-tampa says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:42 AM

    Jace,

    Just think how much better they will be when republicans privatize NASA.

    You don’t need Republicans to “privatize NASA,” Obama is doing that for them. Just look at the SpaceX link below. I am not a big union advocate but Obama has throughout in tenure in office been a union buster. That is one reason unions are not big Obama supporters this year.

    Behind The Scheme To Privatize NASA Elon Musk, The Downey Connection & Google Owners
    By Steve Zeltzer, April 15, 2010 12:06 PM

    A full bore campaign is now being waged by the Obama administration to shutdown the US unionized space program and turn it over to “new age” speculators who want to build a new space program in a “regulation free zone” in Florida. A key player in this plan is billionaire and former owner of Paypal, Elon Musk.

    Musk, has set up SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) and as a NYT journalist Kenneth Chang asks “Should the United States hire Elon Musk, at a cost of a few billion dollars, to run a taxi service for American astronauts?

    In fact, the SpaceX operation like much that Musk and his backers from Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin want the US to give him $6 billion in the next five years to build a union free zone where he can avoid regulations, health and safety rules in building he new space empire. Already in a video that Musk puts out he uses the US Nasa operations to outline his take-over once the site is privatized. He has also leased a former Air Force site to to build his operation which is called Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

  13. Katherine Graham Cracker says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:42 AM

    I ran the SF marathon in 4 hours and 32 minutes (a few years ago well over 20 years ago) I was over 40 when I did…so Paul Ryan is not only a liar but slow and not very impressive

    When is he going to ‘correct’ all the other lies he has told

    The Republicans yuck! What a soulless,morally bankrupt group of people — there are no Republicans worth anything…the only decent ones are either in hiding or have left the party

  14. Katherine Graham Cracker says:
    09/02/2012 at 9:45 AM

    Fogging for mosquitoes…now permanently makes me think of Harborwoman. She told a story about as a child running behind the fogging trucks in the ‘mist’ …
    when they show the trucks on tv…I see HW running behind.

  15. Flatus says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:01 AM

    Katherine, I ‘think’ I’m better off because of our ability to aerial spray and fog in the strange places in which I’ve been assigned.

    The first time I arrived in Korea, the people in my platoon told me about the last platoon leader, a captain, who died of hemorrhagic fever after sunbathing in a grassy area. A bug got him.

    Common sense counts, too. They named a short road after him.

  16. Nash 2.5 says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:08 AM

    Just think about the people who are controlling the Mars robot here on Earth. It’s the ultimate video game.

    Move the robot & fire the laser!

  17. jace says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:11 AM

    Flatus,

    I sat this summer with a veteran of the Pacific theater, who spent most of Christmas day 1944 being depth charged by Japanese destroyers. It went on for so long that by the time it was over the submarine was driven down into the mud so far that they were unable to move.

    I got kind of queasy just listening to him relate the story. He is ninety years old and won’t be around to tell that story much longer. Neither will many others just like him with amazing stories yet to tell.I felt privileged that he shared it with me.

    Today’s selection was for him and all the others like him wherever they served. Courage and dignity personified.

    jace

  18. Katherine Graham Cracker says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:25 AM

    jace

    have you ever heard of Storycorp --

    “Our mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.”

  19. jace says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:30 AM

    PIT,

    You are absolutely correct, and it galls me more than I care to admit for Americans to have bum a ride into space with the Russians.

    That said, republicans never met a project that couldn’t be done better privately than by the government. Given the opportunity, what ever remains of NASA will be privatized as well, unless of course it is given over entirely to the DOD, and turned into a star wars project. In which case it will remain a government function, except for the security will be handled by Blackwater or whatever they call themselves these days. Wink

  20. jace says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:32 AM

    KGC,

    I love storycorp!

  21. Flatus says:
    09/02/2012 at 10:49 AM

    Jace, none of the movies begin to reflect the courage and heroism of our submariners. It my mind their daily calls to duty is on par with those who climbed Mt Suribachi or charged Omaha Beach.

  22. jace says:
    09/02/2012 at 11:06 AM

    Flatus,

    Amen to that.

  23. purple-in-tampa says:
    09/02/2012 at 11:31 AM

    I remember watching The Silent Service a documentary about the American submarines in the pacific. It was great.


    Silent Service -- Submarine part 1

  24. Flatus says:
    09/02/2012 at 12:56 PM

    PiT, thanks for linking that documentary. Cdr Beach was _the_ definitive author of books about life in the submarine service. His presence in the Silent Service adds instant credibility.

  25. Flatus says:
    09/02/2012 at 1:04 PM

    Our scoutmaster brought a bottle of ears that he said that he had excised from Japanese corpses in the Pacific.

    He was such a pig. I dropped out shortly thereafter. Now I wonder if he has them on his mantelpiece.

    He taught us how to pee on campfires.

  26. Jamie White says:
    09/02/2012 at 1:37 PM

    Somewhat in line with Storycorp, I just ordered a DNA kit from Ancestry. Those pesky Mormons may get my money, but they won’t get a vote -- at least not this year. Once submitted, it takes 6 to 8 weeks for the report to return from the lab. I’ll let folks know what ethnicities and heritages turn up. Given the historic agreeableness of the women in my family, nothing would surprise me.

  27. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 1:48 PM

    …so Paul Ryan is not only a liar but slow and not very impressive

    kgc, and not too good a catholic either if one compares his actions to the tenets of his church. best not to wave the flag of religion, beat one’s chest piously, spout beatitudes if not pure of heart as well as deed.

  28. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 2:10 PM

    speaking of lying/liars

    Tony Blair and George W Bush should be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague over the Iraq war, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said.

    Writing in the UK’s Observer newspaper, he accused the former leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19454562

  29. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 2:25 PM

    Republicans are trying to undermine Vice President Joe Biden’s effectiveness as the Obama campaign’s chief surrogate and liaison to white, working-class voters and seniors, influential groups courted aggressively by both parties.

    With relentless attacks aimed at portraying President Barack Obama’s running mate as a governing liability, Republicans hope to raise the stature of GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, who will debate Biden next month, and score points in closely contested states such as Ohio, Florida and New Hampshire.
    [....]

    Schmidt warned that the hits on Biden actually could have an unintended consequence heading into to the vice presidential debate set for Oct. 11 in Danville, Ky.

    “When you ridicule someone, you’re lowering expectations to a point that makes it a lot harder for Paul Ryan to score points,” Schmidt said. “There’s a downside in that.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/gop-tries-portray-biden-governing-liability-121929462.html

  30. patd says:
    09/02/2012 at 2:30 PM

    Why Barack Needs Bill

  31. harborwoman says:
    09/02/2012 at 2:40 PM

    LOL, kgc! I’m sure I look really, really cute running behind the mosquito fogging truck in your mind’s eye! And I’m guessing it explains some of my current mental fogginess…. Wink

  32. sturgeone says:
    09/02/2012 at 2:42 PM

    and then there was run silent run deep…..

  33. Craig.Crawford says:
    09/02/2012 at 6:19 PM

    NEW THREAD