The SuperCam Instrument onboard Perseverance: Overview of efforts compiled for Mars X conference
Résumé
The Perseverance rover landed at Jezero crater on February 18th, 2021. The choice of this landing
site for the Mars2020 mission was motivated by its geological significance and the potential insights into Mars’ past habitability and search for past life. Indeed, Jezero crater once contained a lake, with a very well preserved delta on the west, making it an ideal location to search for signs of ancient microbial life. The Perseverance rover has four main objectives: 1. Search for traces of past microbial life 2. Characterize Mars’s climate and geology in the landing site 3. Collect samples for later return to Earth 4.Test technologies for future missions.
Perseverance is equipped with seven scientific instruments, including the SuperCam suite [1,2]. SuperCam
combines several remote-sensing techniques in order tostudy both the Martian surface and its atmosphere: 1. the LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) technique gives access to the chemical composition of the targets (up to 15m). All major elements are quantified (Si, Ti, Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, K [3]) and the quantification of some minor elements is under progress [4]; 2. The Raman spectroscopy enables the identification of major mineral phases via the use of a 532nm pulsed laser, for Raman shifts between 150 and >4000cm-1
; 3. The VISIR spectroscopy gives access to the mineralogy, via the reflection of sunlight to access the
frequency of molecule bond vibrations of the targets. The VIS range covers the 379-464nm and 535-855nm range, and the IRS part is comprised in the 1.3-2.6 microns range using an Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter spectrometer [5]; 4. The Remote Micro Imager (RMI) uses a CMOS camera of 2048x2048 pixels, with an angular size of 10 microradians and a resolution of 50 microradians; 5. The microphone records air pressure fluctuations from 20 Hz to 12.5 or 50 KHz, at sampling rates of 25 or 100 KHz, respectively.
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