NASA's Curiosity rover can **w fire its laser on its own. What could possibly go wron
 

NASA's Curiosity rover can **w fire its laser on its own. What could possibly go wrong?
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Fire away, Curiosity.*

NASA's intrepid Curiosity rover on Mars **w has the ability to choose an interesting rock target and fire its scientific laser at it auto**mously.

Yep, that's right.*

A car-sized rover can select a rock it wants to shoot with a laser and then actually fire it all without human intervention.

SEE ALSO: Latest Curiosity rover selfies show off Mars' red surface


Curiosity isn't just firing its laser for fun, either. The plasma produced from the zapped rock helps scientists learn more about exactly what the target is made of.

The rover's new auto**my is made possible by using software that helps Curiosity pick out rock targets based on brightness and size parameters laid out by scientists ahead of time, according to NASA. Read more...

More about Nasa, Mars, Curiosity Rover, Science, and Spacehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Mashable/~4/ExdMTYq3CWI