The Curiosity shoots the Martian rock

The Curiosity of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) has for the first time deployed a laser device to shoot a rock on Mars, using 30 short but intense light rays.

In a statement from the mission control center at the Jet Engine Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, NASA said the device called ChemCam on August 19 shot a laser into a stone the same size. The tennis ball called Coronation (formerly known as N165) is about 2.5 meters away from Curiosity.

Within 10 seconds, ChemCam shot a 30 laser beam. Short but strong beams of light from the device penetrated the surface of the stone.

The N165-branded stone has been punctured.

The main purpose of yesterday's trial of ChemCam device to see if it is ready to start an important task is to understand the geological structure of "Red planet" . But scientists will use the data they receive to analyze the chemical composition of rocks on Mars.

NASA scientists claim their initial test was successful.

"We received a lot of Coronation signals," said Roger Wiens, from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the device was developed. 'After 8 years of manufacturing equipment, we were not successful.

ChemCam is one of a series of devices that NASA's 1-ton Curiosty self-propelled vehicle, which landed on Mars at a named Gale Hole 2 weeks ago. For two years, the ship will try to determine whether past environments at the landing site have ever supported life.

ChemCam equipment manufactured by France and the US will be an important part of that mission, helping to select the most remarkable targets for research.

The technique ChemCam uses has been used to understand the structure of minerals in other special environments, such as inside nuclear reactors or on the seabed.

Technology also has experimental applications in environmental monitoring and cancer detection. But yesterday, the first time it was used in interplanetary exploration, NASA said.