Raman Characterization of the CanMars Rover Field Campaign Samples Using the Raman Laser Spectrometer ExoMars Simulator: Implications for Mars and Planetary Exploration

Emmanuel A Lalla; Menelaos Konstantinidis; Marco Veneranda; Michael G Daly; Jose Antonio Manrique; Elizabeth A Lymer; James Freemantle; Edward A Cloutis; Jessica M Stromberg; Svetlana Shkolyar; Christy Caudill; Daniel Applin; Jorge L Vago; Fernando Rull; Guillermo Lopez-Reyes

doi:10.1089/ast.2021.0055

Raman Characterization of the CanMars Rover Field Campaign Samples Using the Raman Laser Spectrometer ExoMars Simulator: Implications for Mars and Planetary Exploration

Astrobiology. 2022 Apr;22(4):416-438. doi: 10.1089/ast.2021.0055. Epub 2022 Jan 17.

Authors

Emmanuel A Lalla¹, Menelaos Konstantinidis^{1

2

3}, Marco Veneranda⁴, Michael G Daly¹, Jose Antonio Manrique⁴, Elizabeth A Lymer¹, James Freemantle¹, Edward A Cloutis⁵, Jessica M Stromberg^{5

6}, Svetlana Shkolyar^{7

8

9}, Christy Caudill¹⁰, Daniel Applin⁵, Jorge L Vago¹¹, Fernando Rull⁴, Guillermo Lopez-Reyes⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada.
² Division of Biostatistics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
³ Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
⁴ Unidad Asociada Universidad de Valladolid-CSIC-CAB, Boecillo, Spain.
⁵ Department of Geography, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada.
⁶ CSIRO Mineral Resources, Kensington, Australia.
⁷ Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Maryland, USA.
⁸ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.
⁹ Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, Washington, USA.
¹⁰ Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration/Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
¹¹ European Space Agency, ESA/ESTEC (SCI-S), Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

PMID: 35041521
DOI: 10.1089/ast.2021.0055

Abstract

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed on February 18, 2021, and has started ground operations. The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will touch down on June 10, 2023. Perseverance will be the first-ever Mars sample caching mission-a first step in sample return to Earth. SuperCam and Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) on Perseverance, and Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) on Rosalind Franklin, will comprise the first ever in situ planetary mission Raman spectroscopy instruments to identify rocks, minerals, and potential organic biosignatures on Mars' surface. There are many challenges associated when using Raman instruments and the optimization and quantitative analysis of resulting data. To understand how best to overcome them, we performed a comprehensive Raman analysis campaign on CanMars, a Mars sample caching rover analog mission undertaken in Hanksville, Utah, USA, in 2016. The Hanksville region presents many similarities to Oxia Planum's past habitable conditions, including liquid water, flocculent, and elemental compounds (such as clays), catalysts, substrates, and energy/food sources for life. We sampled and conducted a complete band analysis of Raman spectra as mission validation analysis with the RLS ExoMars Simulator or RLS Sim, a breadboard setup representative of the ExoMars RLS instrument. RLS Sim emulates the operational behavior of RLS on the Rosalind Franklin rover. Given the high fidelity of the Mars analog site and the RLS Sim, the results presented here may provide important information useful for guiding in situ analysis and sample triage for caching relevant for the Perseverance and Rosalind Franklin missions. By using the RLS Sim on CanMars samples, our measurements detected oxides, sulfates, nitrates, carbonates, feldspars, and carotenoids, many with a higher degree of sensitivity than past results. Future work with the RLS Sim will aim to continue developing and improving the capability of the RLS system in the future ExoMars mission.

Keywords: Mars; Planetary exploration; Raman spectroscopy; Rover simulation mission.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Earth, Planet
Exobiology* / methods
Lasers
Mars*
Minerals / analysis

Substances

Minerals