NASA's science rover Curiosity zaps first Martian rock

This mosaic image with a close-up inset, taken prior to the test, shows the rock chosen as the first target for NASA's Curiosity rover to zap with its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, on Mars in this Nasa handout photo. REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/LANL/Handout

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Mars rover Curiosity zapped its first Martian rock on Sunday with a high-powered laser gun designed to analyze its mineral composition, and scientists declared their target practice a success.

The robotic science lab took aim at the fist-sized stone with its laser beam and shot the rock with 30 pulses over a 10-second period, NASA said in a statement issued from mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles.