Appleton native plays role in NASA Mars rover - Green Bay Press Gazette

Bernardin said there are two parts of the instrument ). An engineering team at a laboratory in Toulouse, France, created the device's laser, telescope and camera. The camera snaps high-resolution pictures of what the laser will shoot and, once a target is chosen, a laser beam fires through the telescope, vaporizing the rock. The telescope collects the light waves emitted from the atoms of the vaporized material.ChemCam was handed over to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in 2009 — one of three big moments for the project, Bernardin said. The others were the launch, which he witnessed at Cape Canaveral, and the night of Aug. 5. When that night approached, the 44-year-old engineer said he was met with a "surreal feeling."<br />http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120825/GPG0101/308250225/Appleton-native-plays-role-NASA-Mars-rover