ChemCam on the next NASA mission to Mars (MSL-2011): measured performance of the high power LIBS laser beam

ChemCam is one of the ten instruments on the Mars Science Laboratory (also called Curiosity), a big rover being built by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), for the next NASA mission to Mars (MSL 2011). ChemCam is a suite consisting of two remote sensing instruments: a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) [1] and a Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) [2]. LIBS provides elemental composition of rocks and soils, while the RMI places the LIBS analyses in their geomorphologic context.