THE FIRST FROST DETECTION CAMPAIGN BY THE MARS 2020 PERSEVERANCE ROVER: IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
Résumé
Here we describe the first campaign launched by the Perseverance rover to detect frost during the first Martian year of operations (669 sols as of Jan 5, 2023). This campaign was conceived, developed and executed following lessons learnt from the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, where frost was likely detected [1].
Between sols 546 and 548 during northern winter (Ls ~297), measurements of ground temperature and relative humidity by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA, [2]) were used to predict frost formation, while SuperCam laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman spectrometer measurements [3,4] were used to detect frost formation on a target informally called Snowy Mountain. While the measured ground temperature fell below the estimated frost point, and therefore frost was predicted by MEDA, neither H enrichment in LIBS measurements nor Raman peaks associated with water ice were detected by SuperCam.
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