>> NASA's Perseverance rover has been working
on its science mission
with the help of the SuperCam instrument,
a rock-vaporizing laser and camera
that examines rocks and soils.
To learn more about SuperCam,
we are joined by Hemani Kalucha.
She's the Science Payload Uplink Lead
for SuperCam Operations.
>> So SuperCam looks out of the big circular window--
-the white box on top of the mast.
And it uses spectroscopy,
which is just when light excites atoms in a rock
and we get unique shifted wavelengths back to us.
And so we use a combination
of lasers and infrared vision,
and that lets us do science
even further out than the robotic arm.
The lasers reach seven meters or 23 feet away,
and the infrared much, much further.
And that's not even all.
We have a tiny, high-resolution camera
and a microphone to hear Mars,
and that's how we heard the helicopter.
>> And can you talk
about some of the images SuperCam has taken
and why they are important to scientists?
>> Absolutely.
So we started by taking out images
and spectra near the rover,
and as you can see in this image,
the laser actually blows away the dust
and makes these small pits in the rocks,
and that lets us analyze material
that's just below the surface of the rock,
which is what we care about.
And then we can record the sounds of the laser
with our microphone,
and it tells us something about the hardness of the rocks.
And then starting Sol 26,
we were able to take pictures
of these long-distance targets, like Kodiak,
and that really helps the rover team understand
where to drive next for more close-up analysis.
And these red circles you see is actually the infrared,
telling us about the mineral content
of these far-away outcrops.
So that's how SuperCam figures out more
about the geological history of Mars,
and we're so excited to see what the laser can do next.
>> Thank you so much for joining us today, Hemani.
To get the latest updates,
follow @NASAJPL and @NASAPersevere on social media,
and on the mission website, mars.nasa.gov/perseverance,
you can also find all the raw images
being sent back by the rover.