More futurisitic tech was on show this month as we explored the technology that will be carried by Nasa's Mars rover, set to visit the red planet next year.
Among the kit onboard will be the ChemCam, shown above, will fire a laser from the rover toward rock and soil targets up to nine meters away, vaporising materials from a 1mm area and analysing the atomic composition of the targets' surfaces. The vaporised material, a plasma of hot gas made of free-floating ions and electrons, will be analysed by the onboard spectrograph.
For more on the equipment making the journey to Mars, see The technology powering Nasa's Mars rover.
Image credit: Nasa/JPL-Caltech/LANL/J-L Lacour/CEA
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