Slashdot Mirror
Curiosity Rover Fires First Laser Beam At Martian Rock
A martian rock named "Coronation" was shot with 30 pulses over a 10-second period by Curiosity's laser today in order to determine what elements it was made of. “We got a great spectrum of Coronation — lots of signal,” Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, leader of the ChemCam scientific team, said in a press release today. “Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it’s payoff time!” Another rock known as N165 was selected for later testing.
How long until we send a Bagger 288 to mars? That'll show those rocks what for.
You folks realize that this is very likely to result in a Council of War from the Elders. It's bad enough to litter the landscape with Earthling detritus, but offensive weaponry on innocent and passive Martian rocks cannot be tolerated!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
What if the martians ARE rocks?!
So this is how Curiosity kills cats? I guess the next mission needs to be called Satisfaction.
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
Anybody want to tell me why they don't link to the source
And anybody want to tell me why sppammers can post more frequently than I can?
In my experience of shooting lasers at rocks, there's usually a chance of finding a health pack or some coins.
Here's a more official news link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120819b.html. I hope they will announce soon the actual results of the spectroscopy somewhere.
Also a reminder that NASA's official page for this mission is:
http://www.nasa.gov/msl/. This is probably a better source for MSL news than wired.
Would it hurt slashdot editors to post the official NASA links as well as the submitted, third-party news links? We pay them to be editors after all.
> A martian rock named "Coronation" was shot with 30 pulses
ZAPPED, God damn it!
Robots on Mars with freakin' laser beams and claws zap things!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Out here we know...don't name it if you're gonna shoot it.
We've put on Mars a large machine that blasts the landscape with a heat ray. A heat ray. And we have set the example that such a machine can be robotic, and impervious to microbes. That's sure to end well.
I wrote parts of this stuff
or as H.G. Wells put it,
NASA should offer the chance to name each rock it blasts for a donation. They could probably get free advertising from science mags, oddball news organizations doing stories, and divorce lawyers.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
There was supposed to be an EARTH-SHATTERING BOOM!!!
it cannot solve with the proper use of rockets, lasers and in one notable case, duct tape.
Someone start a White House petition to rename NASA to "Federal Department of Rockets and Lasers". Because who in their right mind (or several of the wrong ones) would cut funding to the Department of Rockets and Lasers?
You know your technological civilization has reached a certain level when you send a robot to another planet to shoot shit with fricken lasers.
Early days yet, can only sizzle a bit of rock. Today, some scientific samples, tomorrow the galaxy!
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
I'm still waiting for the earth shattering kaboom. There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom. Especially if it tests a rock with illudium Q-36 in it.
Have gnu, will travel.
NASA should offer the chance to laser-engrave your name on a Martian rock. For megabucks, they could write your name in giant cursive with the rover's wheel tracks; all applications must include a program written in LOGO.
Wait for the George Lucas remastered documentary, and the rock will have fired first.
Sorry about crashing in on you, we come in peace, I promise. I'll just fire my laser for a while over there. No hard feelings right?