Mars probe robots can fire lasers themselves

Curiosity Rover self-propelled vehicle has just been upgraded by the US Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) to allow it to choose its target to fire laser beams into minerals to analyze their components. This is a mission of Curiosity Rover for 4 years of exploring Mars.

Curiosity Rover is using lasers on Mars.(Photo: Wikipedia).

Aegis software helps Curiosity Rover to actively use a variety of lasers and camera telescopes to determine potential targets based on the criteria set by Earth scientists. "Freedom of control is particularly useful when scientists have difficulty or cannot contact Curiosity Rover," NASA engineer Tara Estlin said.

To fire a laser mineral, Curiosity Rover attacked with a small pulse, then measured the gas produced by the spectrometer. This tool records the wavelengths through plasma colors - the fourth state of matter, in which strongly ionized matter - is produced by firing a laser beam. Then, the chemical composition of the mineral will be determined in turn.

"Due to the small size of the mineral and the difficulty of controlling from Earth, to shoot accurately, self-propelled vehicles must be near the target for a long time to control the parameters at Earth. the Aegis software update, Curiosity Rover can attack correctly automatically the first time, " said Estlin.