A laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument will be one of the ten science instruments on NASA’s next Mars rover, known as Curiosity. The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on the rover uses a laser to excite a spot on rocks and produce an ionised gas which is observed through a telescope and analysed to identify the chemical elements in the target.
The information gathered about rocks or patches of soil up to about 7 m away will help the rover team survey the rover's surroundings and choose which targets to drill into, or scoop up, for additional analysis by other instruments on Curiosity. The team will assess whether any environments in the landing area have been favourable for microbial life and for preserving evidence about whether life existed. In late 2011, NASA will launch Curiosity and the other parts of the flight system, delivering the rover to the surface of Mars in August 2012.
Earlier Mars rover missions have lacked a way to identify some of the lighter elements, such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, lithium and boron, which can be clues to past environmental conditions in which the rock was formed or altered. After NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit examined an outcrop called "Comanche" in 2005, it took years of analysing indirect evidence before the team could confidently infer the presence of carbon in the rock. A single observation with ChemCam could detect carbon directly.
The instrument's telescope doubles as the optics for the camera part of ChemCam, which records images on a one-megapixel detector. The telescopic camera will show context of the spots hit with the laser and can also be used independently of the laser.
The instrument is now installed on Curiosity, and testing continues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is assembling the rover and other components of the Mars Science Laboratory flight system for launch from Florida between 25 November and 18 December 2011.