Data from the powerful scientific instrument includes the sounds of its laser zapping a stone to test what it is made of.
The first readings of the SuperCam instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover arrived on Earth. SuperCam was jointly developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and a consortium of French research laboratories under the auspices of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES). The instrument delivered data to the French Space Agency’s operations center in Toulouse, which includes the first sound of laser zaps from another planet.
“It’s amazing to see SuperCam working so well on Mars,” said Roger Wiens, principal investigator of the SuperCam instrument of Perseverance at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. “When we first dreamed of this instrument eight years ago, we were worried that we were far too ambitious. Now it works like a charm up there. “
“The acquired sounds are of outstanding quality,” says Naomi Murdoch, a researcher and lecturer at the ISAE-SUPAERO School of Aerospace Engineering in Toulouse. “It’s unbelievable to believe that we will make science with the first sounds ever recorded on the surface of Mars!”
On March 9, the mission released three SuperCam audio files. Obtained only about 18 hours after landing, when the mast remained perched on the deck of the rover, the first file captures the faint sounds of the Martian wind.
The wind is more audible, especially around 20 seconds, in the second sound file, recorded on the fourth Martian day of the rover, or ground.
The third file of the SuperCam, from Sol 12, includes the zapping sounds of the laser that affects a rock target 30 times at a distance of about 3.1 meters. Some zaps sound a little louder than others, providing information about the physical structure of the targets, such as its relative hardness.
“I want to express my sincere thanks and congratulations to our international partners at CNES and the SuperCam team for being part of this important journey with us,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA’s Washington headquarters. “SuperCam really offers our rover eyes to see evidence of promising tracks and ears to hear what it sounds like when they drop lasers. This information will be essential when determining which samples will be cached and finally returned to Earth through our revolutionary Mars campaign, which will be one of the most ambitious deeds ever undertaken by mankind.
The SuperCam team also received the first excellent data sets from the instrument’s visible and infrared sensor (VISIR), as well as its Raman spectrometer. VISIR collects light reflected from the Sun to study the mineral content of rocks and sediments. This technique complements the Raman spectrometer, which uses a green laser beam to excite the chemical bonds in a sample to produce a signal based on what elements are linked to each other, in turn providing information about the mineral composition of a rock.
“This is the first time an instrument has used Raman spectroscopy anywhere other than on Earth!” said Olivier Beyssac, CNRS research director at the Institut de Mineralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie in Paris. “Raman spectroscopy will play a crucial role in characterizing minerals to gain a deeper insight into the geological conditions in which they formed and to detect potential organic and mineral molecules that could have formed from living organisms.”
More about the mission
SuperCam is run by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the instrument’s body unit was developed. This part of the instrument includes several spectrometers, control electronics and software.
The mast unit was developed and built by several laboratories of CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and French universities under the contracting authority of CNES. Calibration targets on the rover deck are provided by the University of Valladolid in Spain.
A key objective for the mission of Perseverance on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the geology of the planet and the climate of the past, will pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and will be the first mission to collect and hide the rock and Martian rule (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (the European Space Agency), will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for further analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission is part of NASA’s approach to exploring the Moon on Mars, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon, which will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, has built and manages the operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
nasa.gov/perseverance
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