SuperCam One Step Closer to Mars

Multimedia · 29 April 2019

OSTI ID:1559007

Weins, Roger ^[1]

---

1. USDOE/OSTI

The SuperCam instrument -- designed, built and tested at Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with the French Space Agency -- and destined for the exploration of Mars has completed testing and evaluation at Los Alamos and is on its way to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for full system integration. SuperCam will be one of two Los Alamos instruments on the next rover, called Mars 2020, an upgraded version of the current rover on Mars, Curiosity. SuperCam consists of a "mast unit" and "body unit, the mast unit, mounted on a mast on the exterior of the rover, is essentially a telescope with a laser, an extremely advanced version of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, or LIBS, a technology invented at Los Alamos. The laser blasts a tiny portion of a geological formation, both rocks and soils on Mars, creating a plasma. The telescope then captures the spectra of the light emitted by the plasma. The body unit, mounted inside the body of the rover, is essentially a sophisticated spectrometer, and uses the light spectra to determine both the elemental and molecular composition of the sample, along with physical properties like hardness. Launch of the Mars 2020 mission is scheduled for late July, 2020, followed by the landing on Mars in February of 2021.

• Research Organization: LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States))
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• OSTI ID: 1559007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

2020
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
FRENCH SPACE AGENCY
GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY
INSTRUMENT
MARS
MARS ROVER
SUPERCAM
TELESCOPE
TESTING