France on Mars aboard NASA’s Perseverance Rover

News

16 March 2020

NASA’s next Mars rover has a new name: “Perseverance”. This name is reminiscent of its wheeled predecessors: Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. Long live Perseverance, which will be launched this summer from Cape Canaveral towards the red planet! “Perseverance” has a piercing eye, the laser of the SuperCam instrument that was specially built by the United States and France to study the geology of the soil and rocks of Mars. The instrument will help scientists in their search for early, fossilized signs of microbial life on the Red Planet. SuperCam’s powerful laser sprays very small amounts of rock from a distance, emitting a spark whose light is analyzed. The instrument thus provides essential information on the composition of Martian rocks.

SuperCam is located at the top of the @NASAPersevere mast. Consisting of 5 sub-instruments developed by the @LosAlamosNatLab and a consortium of laboratories led by the @IRAP_France, it will be operated alternately from the @CNES control center.

Further Resources

IRAP Contact

  • Sylvestre Maurice, sylvestre.maurice@irap.omp.eu

More news

SVOM mission to study the most distant stellar explosions enters operational phase

The verification phase of this Franco-Chinese space mission, dedicated in particular to the detection and study of gamma-ray bursts, has come to an end with highly promising initial results. SVOM […]

SHOCK REGIME WITH LOW-TEMPERATURE COOKING FOR LEES: SHAKE WELL BEFORE SERVING HOT!

The mechanical and thermal model (STM) of the Low-Energy Electron Spectrometer (LEES) instrument, for which IRAP is responsible, has successfully passed a series of environmental tests (temperature, vibration, and shock) […]

THE SULPHUROUS IO, OBJECT OF ALL ATTENTIONS!

The study of the Jupiter system and the evolution of its moons toward habitability is at the heart of NASA’s extended Juno mission through 2025, and of the preparation of […]

Search