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Title: The SuperCam Instrument Suite on the NASA Mars 2020 Rover: Body Unit and Combined System Tests

Journal Article · · Space Science Reviews
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  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Univ. of Toulouse (France). Research Inst. in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP)
  3. Univ. Bordeaux (France). Lab. d'astrophysique de Bourdeaux
  4. Paris Observatory, Meudon (France). Lab. d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique
  5. Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (United States)
  6. US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ (United States). Astrogeology Science Center
  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), Toulouse (France)
  8. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
  9. Univ. of Basque Country, Bilbao (Spain). UPV/EHU
  10. Univ. Grenoble Alpes (France). Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble
  11. Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France). Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Minéralogie, Physique des Matériaux et Cosmochimie, CNRS
  12. Univ. of Bordeaux (France). Centre Lasers Intense de Applications
  13. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
  14. Univ. of Toulouse (France). Research Inst. in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP); Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE), Toulouse (France)
  15. University of Winnipeg (Canada)
  16. Univ. Lyon (France)
  17. Université de Toulouse (France)
  18. Université de Lorraine, Nancy (France)
  19. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  20. University of Toulouse (France)
  21. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
  22. University of Málaga (Spain)
  23. University of Nantes (France)
  24. McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
  25. University of Valladolid (Spain)
  26. Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark)
  27. Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid (Spain)
  28. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  29. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
  30. Univ. of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA (United States)
  31. Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
  32. Lab. Atmospheres, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Paris (France)
  33. Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE), Toulouse (France)
  34. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  35. FiberTech Optica, Kitchener, ON (Canada)
  36. Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), Orsay (France)
  37. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), Berlin (Germany)
  38. Los Alamos National LaLos Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)boratory
  39. SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The SuperCam instrument suite provides the Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, with a number of versatile remote-sensing techniques that can be used at long distance as well as within the robotic-arm workspace. These include laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), remote time-resolved Raman and luminescence spectroscopies, and visible and infrared (VISIR; separately referred to as VIS and IR) reflectance spectroscopy. A remote micro-imager (RMI) provides high-resolution color context imaging, and a microphone can be used as a stand-alone tool for environmental studies or to determine physical properties of rocks and soils from shock waves of laser-produced plasmas. SuperCam is built in three parts: The mast unit (MU), consisting of the laser, telescope, RMI, IR spectrometer, and associated electronics, is described in a companion paper. The on-board calibration targets are described in another companion paper. Here we describe SuperCam’s body unit (BU) and testing of the integrated instrument. The BU, mounted inside the rover body, receives light from the MU via a 5.8 m optical fiber. The light is split into three wavelength bands by a demultiplexer, and is routed via fiber bundles to three optical spectrometers, two of which (UV and violet; 245–340 and 385–465 nm) are crossed Czerny-Turner reflection spectrometers, nearly identical to their counterparts on ChemCam. The third is a high-efficiency transmission spectrometer containing an optical intensifier capable of gating exposures to 100 ns or longer, with variable delay times relative to the laser pulse. This spectrometer covers 535–853 nm ($$105\text{--}7070~\text{cm}^{-1}$$ Raman shift relative to the 532 nm green laser beam) with $$12~\text{cm}^{-1}$$ full-width at half-maximum peak resolution in the Raman fingerprint region. The BU electronics boards interface with the rover and control the instrument, returning data to the rover. Thermal systems maintain a warm temperature during cruise to Mars to avoid contamination on the optics, and cool the detectors during operations on Mars.Results obtained with the integrated instrument demonstrate its capabilities for LIBS, for which a library of 332 standards was developed. Examples of Raman and VISIR spectroscopy are shown, demonstrating clear mineral identification with both techniques. Luminescence spectra demonstrate the utility of having both spectral and temporal dimensions. Finally, RMI and microphone tests on the rover demonstrate the capabilities of these subsystems as well.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Spanish Science Ministry; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1774444
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-20-23619
Journal Information:
Space Science Reviews, Vol. 217, Issue 1; ISSN 0038-6308
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
Perseverance rover
LIBS
Raman spectroscopy
infrared spectroscopy
microphone on Mars
SuperCam
Jezero crater
Mars