For the first time, the Paris Observatory, via the scientific expertise of LESIA, is taking part in the creation of a NASA martian robot Mars 2020.
Mars 2020 is a NASA robotic exploration mission, which will be launched in July. It will deposit on the surface of the red planet’ a vehicle in order to search for traces of ancient life, if it did ever exist, and to prepare samples which could one day be sent back to the Earth. NASA is collaborating with Caltech/JPL for the development of the mission, which will carry seven instruments, including SuperCam.
The LESIA teams will take part in the creation of the SuperCam instrument, one of the 7 instruments on board the future robot.
SuperCam is an improved version of ChemCam, the instrument on board Curiosity, the robotic vehicle in operation on Mars since 2012. Supercam will study the chemistry and the mineralogy of the rocks and the surface material of Mars. As ChemCam, this set of instruments is composed of :
• The Mast Unit which is furnished by France under the responsibility of the CNES and the IRAP ;
• The Body Unit which will be furnished by the USA, under the responsibility of the Los Alamos National Laboratory ;
• The calibration targets will be provided by Spain, under the responsibility of the Valladolid University.
The Mast Unit will be installed on the vehicle’s mast and will enable mineralogical targets to be studied over 360° in azimuth and ±90° in altitude.
This module is composed of six sub-systems :
- a telescope,
- a single pulsed laser working at 1064 nm or 532 nm furnished by Thales,
- a color imager,
- an infra-red spectrometer,
- a microphone,
- and an electronics unit which controls all these various sub-systems.
The LESIA, in close collaboration with the LATMOS (Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales), is responsible for the module’s infra-red spectrometer. This latter will enable the mineralogical composition of the martian rocks to be determined in fine detail.
The LESIA is globally very much involved in the overall development of the Mast Unit.
Run-through before the flight model
From February 22nd to March 9th 2018, the LESIA submitted the qualification model of the Mast Unit. to a series of tests.
The instrument was placed in the clean room, as required by the rules for « planetary protection », which are very strict so as to exclude all microbiological contamination.
Under vacuum - in the SimEnOm tank - it underwent for two weeks a set of tests : health tests, optical alignment, tests, thermal behavior test and infra-red spectrometer calibration tests…
Done in collaboration with the scientific teams of the IRAP (Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie à Toulouse), of the IAS (Institut d’Astrophysique Spatial at Orsay) and of the LATMOS, the test series was highly successful. Note that the expertise and the equipment for these kinds of test are very limited in France.
The qualification model of SuperCam is at last ready to leave the LESIA and be delivered to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. There, it will be integrated with the qualification model of the Body Unit of the American contribution (UV and visible specgtrometer), before being delivered to the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) at Pasadena in California.
This step is essential, since it enables the preparation of the calibration of the flight model of the Mast Unit foreseen for October 2018.
Contributions :
SuperCam is the fruit of a close collaboration with the « Los Alamos National Laboratory » (USA) and the Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP - Institute for research in astrophysics and planetology, France), with a contribution from the Valladolid University (Spain).
Under the responsibility of the CNES, the design and manufacture of the French part of the SuperCam (known as the « Mast Unit ») are coordinated by the IRAP.
The CNES, the CNRS and the universities furnish the human resources. Many laboratories and institutes contribute their scientific expertize and participate in the manufacture of the instrument, in its qualification and in its scientific calibration ; the LESIA, Meudon ; the LAB, Bordeaux ; the LATMOS, Guyancourt ; the ISAE-Supaéro, Toulouse ; the OMP, Toulouse ; the IAS, Orsay, and the CNES Toulouse. Other French laboratories actively contribute to the design of the instruments and, finally, will participate in the surface operations on Mars : the IPAG and the ISTerre, Grenoble ; the IMPMC, Paris ; the LPGN, Nantes ; the LGLTPE, Lyon ; the LOMA, Bordeaux ; GeoRessources, Nancy and PHASE, Toulouse.