ChemCam fires its laser for the millionth time on Mars – Los Alamos Reporter

The ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity rover has fired one million times since landing on Mars in 2012. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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The ChemCam instrument, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, recently deployed its laser on Mars for the millionth time. ChemCam sits on NASA's Curiosity rover and has contributed to groundbreaking discoveries since 2012.

“Not only is this a remarkable technical achievement of our instrument, but it also provides an astonishing amount of chemical data from the surface of Mars,” said Nina Lanza, ChemCam's principal investigator. “Each laser pulse produces a single complex spectrum that, on its own, provides a wealth of geochemical information. And we have 1 million of them – and counting!”

ChemCam uses a technique called laser-induced plasma spectroscopy to blast rocks and create a plasma. It then collects the light from that plasma to find out what elements are present on the planet's surface. The goal is to determine Mars' past habitability and answer the question of whether Mars was once suitable for life.

“Our greatest strength lies in the international technical and scientific collaboration around this project. The introduction of this new analysis method on Mars has opened up a new field of research, namely the study of rocks at the grain scale,” said Olivier Gasnault, research associate at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP) and co-director of ChemCam.

Over the years, the instrument has played a key role in NASA's mission and made a number of significant discoveries. These findings include the 2016 discovery of manganese oxides on Mars, suggesting that it may once have had higher concentrations of oxygen in its atmosphere. This evidence of more oxygen in Mars' early atmosphere complements other findings from Curiosity – such as evidence of ancient lakes – that show how Earth-like Mars may once have been.

In 2017, ChemCam was the first to detect the element boron in salts in Gale Crater. Boron plays a unique role in prebiotic chemistry by supporting the formation of RNA.

In 2019, ChemCam found that the surface of Mars once contained shallow, salty ponds that occasionally overflowed and dried up. Analysis of mineral-salt-enriched rocks in Gale Crater showed that Mars' climate was not as stable as once thought, with very wet and very dry periods.

“Thanks to ChemCam, we discovered that the chemical composition of Mars is much more diverse than expected, especially in rocks that are directly related to water changes,” said Patrick Gasda, a researcher at Los Alamos and member of the ChemCam team.

ChemCam also enabled the first analysis of the Glen Torridon region of Gale Crater, finding that the bedrock in this area was altered by groundwater in the planet's early history.

And earlier this year, Curiosity discovered elemental sulfur, the first time this mineral was found in its pure form on Mars.

Curiosity's primary mission was supposed to last about two years. More than 12 years later, the rover is still on the move, exploring new areas on Mars and collecting data along the way. ChemCam will continue to support the mission as long as the rover exists.

“We have already learned so much from our 1 million spectra, and I have no doubt that we will continue to learn new things about Mars from these and future spectra for many years to come,” Lanza said.

The ChemCam project is jointly led by Los Alamos and IRAP. The team represents a remarkable and long-lasting collaboration between the USA and France for over 20 years. More than 70 researchers and engineers work as a single team, spread across more than 20 institutions worldwide. Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the team supports the operation of the ChemCam instrument on Mars and the scientific analysis of the data it sends back.

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