February 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

ChemCam heads to Jet Propulsion Lab

Rover launch scheduled for 2009

Roger Wiens of Space Science and Applications checks out the Laboratory's ChemCam engineering model scheduled for delivery to NASA the first week of February. The instrument shoots powerful laser pulses at rocks to determine their composition.

Shown mounted in two parts on the test stand, the full ChemCam flight model will be delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in July and will be launched to Mars in late 2009 as part of a new rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or still is, an environment able to support microbial life. Photo by LeRoy Sanchez