Now that NASA’s “seven-minutes of terror” have passed safely, the Mars Curiosity rover’s exploratory mission is off and running. Over the next two years probably more, if it’s anything like the Opportunity or Spirit rovers the Jeep-sized rover will explore its new home using a variety of tools . One of the Curiosity’s most important objectives will be to help researchers understand how Mars transformed over the past 3.5 billion years of geologic time into a drier, less hospitable planet.

For that, the six-wheeled mobile laboratory will rely heavily on a ChemCam laser characterization instrument and several other devices it is set to carry on its projected 19-kilometer journey. ChemCam developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the French space institute (IRAP) is designed to rapidly analyze rock and soil compositions outside the rover, identifying samples that could be studied further by additional instruments inside the rover. The LANL-built CheMin, for example, will use X-ray diffraction to determine the composition of mineral samples collected and dropped into the rover via a funnel.