NASA: le Curiosity Rover!

Le lancement se déroulait samedi. Je suis impressionné par le raffinement technique et technologique de l'engin.

Un extrait de l'article:

"When it reaches the surface, the rover will begin the most comprehensive survey of the Martian geology to date, including searching for evidence that Mars supported, or can support, life.

But to do that, the rover will be relying on a buffet of scientific instruments, including “ChemCam,” the Chemistry and Camera instrument, a combination spectrometer/laser developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory that fires an ultra-precise, extremely high-powered invisible laser beam designed to vaporize Martian rocks and soil samples a millimeter at a time for further analysis of their composition. The resulting plasma cloud left in the wake of the vaporized matter is then recorded by the spectrometer’s telescope.

“ChemCam is designed to look for lighter elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, all of which are crucial for life,” said Roger Wiens, principal investigator of the MSL mission’s ChemCam team, in a Los Alamos National Laboratory news release. “The system can provide immediate, unambiguous detection of water from frost or other sources on the surface as well as carbon—a basic building block of life as well as a possible byproduct of life. This makes the ChemCam a vital component of Curiosity’s mission.”

Wiers first came up with the idea for the device after seeing a colleague demonstrate a desktop version in 1997.

Now, tech specs published by the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Monday reveal that ChemCam’s beam can reach 10 megawatt intensity, on par with that of Boeing’s Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL), the signature anti-missile weapon aboard the Defense Department’s Airborne Laser Test Bed, which successfully engaged and destroyed a boosting missile target in a February 2010 test.

However, as The Register points out, the ChemCam is an even more remarkable device given how comparatively small and light it is. Whereas the COIL device is on the order of 1.7 tons, so large as to necessitate being carried aboard a Boeing 747-400F, the entire Mars Curiosity rover weighs only 1 ton, including all of its 10 instruments, and the weight of the other equipment, such as its wheels and body. That said, Curiosity is 10 times the weight of each of the three previous Mars rovers."

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/mars-curiosity-rovers-laser-power-on-par-with-anti-missile-system.php?ref=fpnewsfeed