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Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips

Published: 20 August 2012

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has fired its laser for the first time on Mars.

On Sunday the mission’s ChemCam instrument hit a fist-sized rock named “Coronation” with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.

The energy from the laser creates a puff of ionized, glowing plasma.

ChemCam catches the light with a telescope and analyzes it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the rock.

The spectrometers record 6,144 different wavelengths of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light.

“We got a great spectrum of Coronation – lots of signal,” said ChemCam Principal Investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M. “Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it’s payoff time!”

ChemCam recorded spectra from each of the 30 pulses. The goal of this initial use of the laser on Mars was to serve as target practice for characterizing the instrument, but the activity may provide additional value.

Researchers will check whether the composition changed as the pulses progressed. If it did change, that could indicate dust or other surface material being penetrated to reveal different composition beneath the surface.

“It’s surprising that the data are even better than we ever had during tests on Earth, in signal-to-noise ratio,” said ChemCam Deputy Project Scientist Sylvestre Maurice of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie (IRAP) in Toulouse, France. “It’s so rich, we can expect great science from investigating what might be thousands of targets with ChemCam in the next two years.”

The technique used by ChemCam, called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, has been used to determine composition of targets in other extreme environments, such as inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor, and has had experimental applications in environmental monitoring and cancer detection.

Sunday’s investigation of Coronation is the first use of the technique in interplanetary exploration.

More information about ChemCam is available at www.msl-chemcam.com .

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 19 August 2012

NORTH COAST, Calif. – A complex of fires burning in northern Mendocino County rapidly increased in size on Sunday.

The Pass Complex Fire grew to 5,015 acres by Sunday evening, five times the size it was reported to be earlier in the day, according to a report from Cal Fire spokesperson Julie Cooley.

Approximately 540 firefighting personnel were working the fire on Sunday evening, with Cooley reporting 10 percent containment.

The complex was first reported shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday 10 miles northeast of Covelo in Williams Valley.

The two-fire complex includes the Pass 1, which has burned into the Mendocino National Forest, and the Pass 2, which Cooley said jumped the fire line and is burning toward Pass 1.

The fires are moving east and southeast in heavy timber, Cooley reported.

Since the morning report, one outbuilding had been destroyed, according to Cooley. No evacuations were in place.

Resources on scene Sunday evening included 41 fire engines, 20 fire crews, nine bulldozers, two airtankers, two helicopters and six water tenders, Cooley reported.

Cal Fire and the US Forest Service have a unified command on the incident.

Satellite images of Northern California show the Pass Complex is sending smoke south into Lake County, where residents complained of smoky conditions throughout the day.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 19 August 2012

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A fire in neighboring Mendocino County doubled in size, sending smoke into the Lake County air basin, while wildland fires continued to burn across the northern part of the state.

Cal Fire said the Pass Complex, first reported on Saturday afternoon, had grown to 1,000 acres in size by Sunday, with only 5 percent containment.

The fire is located on Mendocino Pass Road northeast of Covelo, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire said the Pass Fire was caused by lightning. Several Lake County residents had reported on Lake County News’ Facebook page and by email that they had seen lightning strikes to the north late Friday.

The fire has resulted in three minor injuries, according to Cal Fire.

No structures were reported threatened, but Cal Fire said the fire was projected to move in a northeast direction toward the Mendocino National Forest and Middle Eel Wilderness.

On Sunday there were 173 personnel on scene, with 35 engines – 34 of them from Cal Fire – as well as 11 fire crews, three airtankers, three helicopters, eight bulldozers and six water tenders. Most of the resources came from Cal Fire.

Cooperating agencies are Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Covelo Fire, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California National Guard.

Other major incidents around Northern California on Sunday included the Ponderosa Fire southeast of Manton in Tehama and Shasta counties.

The fire, which began Saturday morning, had ballooned to 12,000 acres by Sunday afternoon, with no containment yet reached, according to Cal Fire. The cause is under investigation.

Approximately 974 fire personnel, 105 engines, 22 fire crews, 3 helicopters 31 bulldozers and 20 air tankers were assigned in an effort to protect the area’s residents and the 3,000 home, 20 commercial properties and 300 outbuildings that were threatened, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire said four structures had been destroyed by Sunday afternoon.

Evacuations were put in place for the area, and all roads out of Manton were closed. Cal Fire reported that the Manton School was closed and an evacuation center opened in Redding.

Cal Fire said the Ponderosa Fire was burning one mile from Highway 44, and was moving toward the communities of Shingletown and Viola. Highway 299 should be used as an alternate route in the area.

A fire information number was set up at 530-225-2510.

Elsewhere in Northern California on Sunday afternoon, the SHU Lightning Fire had burned 350 acres in the Whitmore area of Shasta County, with 20 percent containment; the Mill Fire, located northwest of Butte Meadows in Butte County, had burned 1,610 acres and was 35 percent contained; the Reading Fire, located in Lassen National Park, was 51 percent contained at 27,849 acres; the Fort Complex, located 10 miles northeast of Happy Camp, was 200 acres with no containment estimate; the Chips Fire on the Plumas and Lassen National Forests was 38-percent contained at 44,793 acres; and the Rush Fire, located on Bureau of Land Management land in the Northern California District near Ravendale, has scorched 249,578 acres since it began last Sunday, Aug. 12, with 45 percent containment.

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