ChemCam at a glance
The ChemCam instrument is an international collaboration led by Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie in France.
ChemCam is on the Curiosity rover, exploring Gale Crater at Mars since 2012. It is used to perform rapid chemical and microscopic reconnaissance
Pulsed laser vaporizes targets up to 5 meters away. The spectrum of light from the laser-induced plasma reveals the chemical composition of the targets in seconds. ChemCam can detect most elements!
It also provides images of targets with high-resolution (can see a human hair 2 meters away).
ChemCam slide show



















ChemCam mosaic
Curiosity Mission Updates
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Sol 2606-2607: If You See a Shadow, 6 More Months of Winter?
on 4 December 2019 at 0 h 00 min
Today's science team faced some tough decisions during today's planning. The geologists had to choose between investigating a plethora of interesting rock […]
JPL Mars news
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NASA's Briefcase-Size MarCO Satellite Picks Up Honors
on 27 November 2019 at 0 h 00 min
The twin spacecraft, the first of their kind to fly into deep space, earn a Laureate from Aviation Week & Space Technology.
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Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky
on 26 November 2019 at 0 h 00 min
A Mars Dust Tower Stands Out Dust storms are common on Mars. But every decade or so, something unpredictable happens: a series of runaway storms break out, covering the entire planet in a dusty haze.
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NASA Updates Mars 2020 Mission Environmental Review
on 21 November 2019 at 0 h 00 min
NASA and the Department of Energy have completed a more detailed risk analysis for the Mars 2020 rover launch from Florida.
Curiosity Mission Updates
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Sol 2606-2607: If You See a Shadow, 6 More Months of Winter?
on 4 December 2019 at 0 h 00 min
Today's science team faced some tough decisions during today's planning. The geologists had to choose between investigating a plethora of interesting rock targets in the workspace, as seen in this Navcam image, or limit the observations at this location in favor of continuing to drive […]
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Sols 2604-2605: A Touch-And-Go in the Post-Thanksgiving Plan
on 3 December 2019 at 0 h 00 min
Today we had a 2-sol plan, though we are restricted, and so doing all our arm and drive activities on the first sol. As part of our standard cadence, we are doing MAHLI and APXS on a target named "Well Run" so that we can compare the compositions of the Western Butte with what we saw at the Central […]
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Sols 2600-2603: A Feast for the Eyes
on 26 November 2019 at 0 h 00 min
Curiosity will be gorging on a feast of data this holiday weekend! We plan to acquire over 12,000 Mb of data in the four sols covering the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, which could be a new record for the mission. The rover will be stuffed, and us scientists will be digesting the results for months to […]
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Sols 2597-2599: A Bounty of Targets
on 25 November 2019 at 0 h 00 min
We arrived at our parking spot for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and Mars gave us plenty to be grateful for in and around the workspace. Each bedrock slab in the workspace seems to have something different to offer, 'Western Butte' looms just 25 meters off to rover left, and dark sand ripples lap […]
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Sols 2594-2596: Heading West and Settling in for Thanksgiving
on 22 November 2019 at 0 h 00 min
We are putting Central Butte behind us now, as we journey onwards to Western Butte, a nearby hill that appears to be similar to Central Butte. At Central Butte, we were spoiled for choice, with lots of rocky outcrops to investigate. Yesterday's drive brought us to the type of workspace we have seen […]