Caption: 
SwRI is designing the CODEX instrument to use radioisotope dating techniques in situ to determine the age of rocks on other planets or moons. With fiver lasers and a mass spectrometer, the 20-inch-cube instrument is designed to vaporize tiny bits of rock and measure the elements present to pin down the rock’s age with previously unmet precision.  

Credit: 
Courtesy of Tom Whitaker, Southwest Research Institute