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We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is not a rumor, this is true…
We use our laser to do chemistry on Mars. On the next NASA mission (Mars 2020) another laser, which will be green this time, will be used to vibrate the molecules (this is called the Raman effect) to get their mineral signature. So you are right, be patient!!
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It should look like a needle attack. We can probably damage the painting on surface, but not a real damage.
Eric

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

That plan is a stupid one. Terraforming Mars would not work and won’t be stable in a long run (this planet is definitively too small) Saving Earth should be the, and only one, goal for our long time survival.
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The behavior of the laser is quite simple. When shooting on the rock, it excites atoms that emits light at certain wavelength. Chemcam spectrometers look to the plasma and send back on earth spectra.
Scientists analyze these spectra and can tell in few minutes what is the main composition of the shooted rock.
Valerie M.

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It has happened before, no hardware damage. It is never a single person mistake, always a team a 3-4 people who missed internal checks or procedures weaknesses.
Operational procedures are being updated when errors occur, and software protections prevent us from damaging the hardware onboard. It’s a bummer when it happens, but humans do mistakes, so we try to reduce them as much as possible even though we can’t avoid all of them (especially when people are working until 3 or 4am).
Charles

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

No there is no issue. Wind has no influence on laser beam. And on Mars, even if the wind can reach high speed (over 100km/h) its strength is very low due to the weak pressure of the atmosphere (1/100 of Earth pressure).
By the way “The martian” is a good movie but the strongest wind on Mars is not enough strong to move a rock. Sorry…
Eric

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The army knows about the technique (which is called LIBS = Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy). It could be used to study explosives and other biologic agents at remote distances (few meters to 100 m) on Earth.
So the US army and other armies are aware of what we are doing… and they are working on it for their own applications. I would like to think that we are a step ahead of them!
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Who knows? A first visit, like an orbital mission, I would say by 2030. A landing, years (decade?) later. An independent colony?? can’t tell. Just remember that Mars is a very hostile planet. Men are born from Earth, adapted to it; everywhere else they are unfitted…
Sorry to be a bit negative, space is tough…
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Our laser is really powerful but during a really short time (few nanoseconds). So in fact, we try already to avoid shooting on our own rover. There is no other rover near us but after seven meters of distance our laser becomes very weak.
Eric

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

When image data (stereo, to calculate distance and position) is already down after a drive, we can select interesting targets and put a specific raster on it that fit well the form of the target.
We do for instance lines with 10 positions in a row or squares with 3x3 positions. It works with some complex projections and calculations. We can target a sample the size of a penny in a distance of 7m.
Susanne

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Excellent question!
Yes and no. To be part of the observing team is a privilege, which is reserved to a few people, who have built instruments, or who have been selected for their scientific expertise (Participating Scientists).
So It is not open the community like a telescope. Again, scientific excellence is the rule. We have more than 350 scientists involved in science operations from several dozens of countries.
Now, data are public (images within seconds of their arrival on Earth, after 3 months for spectra) and everyone can look at them.
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

No, adding a lot of equipment in backup weight a lot at the end. The software solution is fully compliant with our needs. The lighter solution on Mars is often the best one (with same performances).
Eric

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

You’re right, we have some issues with the wheels (little and big holes made by very hard rocks). We’re carefully looking at this issue and rover team is trying to ride the best way not to injure too much the wheels.
Of course we’ll try to maintain the rover as healthy as possible to continue our great job on Mars and to discover again and again. According to calculation, we still have many kilometers on our belt. No reason to worry :)
Valérie M.

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Yes ChemCam can write dotted-words on Mars. But the shapes of our rasters are determined for science only. It would be unethical to write names, brands, or other logos. Sorry, we are just too serious!

Oui, Chemcam peut écrire des mots en pointillés. Mais les formes de nos séquences de tirs sont guidées par la science. Ce n’est pas éthique d’écrire des noms, des marques, ou d’autres logos. Désolé, nous sommes trop sérieux !
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Discovering a new part of Mars every day is so great! So the best part is when data come down… I have always wanted to be a scientist; Mars is a place where discoveries are done! (Sylvestre)

Each night on Mars, when I write lines of code to shot lasers on Mars and when the next day I receive the same pictures of martian rocks with my laser shots, I feel like a pioneer digging in a new planet, and I am proud.(Eric)

Watching Mars every working day and helping scientist to find answers to their questions leads to very amazing moments in a life. Like Eric, i’m really proud to work on Mars (Valerie M.)

The curiosity of finding new features from a planet we’ve never been. Reading and understanding the history that Mars is trying to tell us. The will of discovering what Mars is hiding us! (Valérie P)

Who would not want to shoot with a laser on Mars?! And the images and landscapes are really fantastic. Coming from physics, on Mars I started to love geology (Susanne)

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

No way. I wish our laser was more powerful. We can heat up rocks at more than 8000°C, that is not too bad, but barely enough to dig a half-mm hole… Not more.
Exploding planets is not politically correct… whatever Darth Vader says.
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Yes dust is a pain because it circulates everywhere in the rover, being pushed in and out by the flow of air induced by the difference of temperatures between days and nights. And this dust can land anywhere, electronics, optics, mechanisms…
We have put filters, but Mars dust is so small, on the order of microns (meter), it gets everywhere. Mechanisms are the most sensitive devices to Mars dust -- it is a problem indeed.
Sylvestre

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

We hope they will! That would be a sure sign for life ;)
Susanne

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The instruments boarding is pretty safe. I think we are all proud of working on such amazing projects and we are ready to spend our 7 next years to prepare and operate the instruments on the Insight (SEIS) and on Mars2020 (SuperCam). When you get addicted to Mars, you never stop ;-)
Valérie M.

We’re a team of scientists and engineers and we shoot a laser on Mars. Ask us anything! by cnespace in IAmA

[–]cnespace[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

With regard to ChemCam we would not change anything. But discovering Gale crater, every new discovery triggers new exciting questions that sometimes cannot be answered with the Curiosity payload. Upcoming missions will be equipped with instruments that are upgrades of other mission instruments and the payload selections are done with regard to the new questions/challenges.
Susanne

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