SuperCam

Diagram showing the location of the rover's Mast, which holds several instruments, including the SuperCam

SuperCam is a suite of remote-sensing instruments for the Mars 2020 rover mission that performs remote analyses of rocks and soils with a camera, two lasers and four spectrometers to seek organic compounds that could hold biosignatures of past microbial life on Mars, if it ever existed there.

Development

SuperCam is being developed in collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) in France, the French Space Agency (CNES), the University of Hawaii and the University of Valladolid in Spain. The Principal Investigator is Roger Williams from Los Alamos National Laboratory. SuperCam is an improved version of the successful ChemCam instruments of the Curiosity rover that have been upgraded with two different lasers and detectors.[1][2][3]

In April 2018, SuperCam entered the final stages of assembly and testing. The flight model is scheduled to be integrated in 2018 and installed to the rover later the same year. The rover mission is planned to launch in July 2020.

Overview

SuperCamUnits/performance[4]
LocationMast (electronics and
spectrometers are inside the deck)
Mass10.4 kg (23 lb)
Power17.9 watts
DimensionsApprox. 38 cm × 24 cm × 19 cm
Data return15.5 megabits per experiment
Maximum
working distance		Red laser (LIBS): 7 m
Green laser (Raman): 12 m

For measurements of chemical composition, the instrument suite uses a version of the successful ChemCam instruments of the Curiosity rover that have been upgraded with two different lasers and detectors.[1][2][3] SuperCam's instruments are able to identify the kinds of chemicals that could be evidence of past life on Mars. SuperCam is a suite of various instruments, and the collection of correlated measurements on a target can be used to determine directly the geochemistry and mineralogy of samples.[1][5][6]

The suite has several integrated instruments: Raman spectroscopy, time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) spectroscopy, and Visible and InfraRed (VISIR) reflectance spectroscopy to provide preliminary information about the mineralogy and molecular structure of samples under consideration, as well as being able to directly measure organic compounds.[3][2] The total is four complementary spectrometers, making the suite sensitive enough to measure trace amounts of chemicals.[1][5] In April 2018, SuperCam entered the final stages of assembly and testing.[1]

LIBS

Its remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) emits a 1064-nm red laser beam to investigate targets as small as a grain of rice from a distance of more than 7 meters, allowing the rover to study targets beyond the reach of its arm.[4][5][6] The beam vaporizes a tiny amount of rock, creating a hot plasma. SuperCam then measures the colors of light in the plasma, which provide clues to the target's elemental composition.[2][5] Its laser is also capable of remotely clearing away surface dust, giving all of its instruments a clear view of the targets.[4][5] LIBS unit contains three spectrometers. Two of these handle the visible and violet portion of the VISIR spectra, while the IR portion is recorded in the mast.[7]

Raman spectroscopy

SuperCam's Raman spectrometer (at 532 nm) investigate targets up to 12 m from the rover. In the Raman spectroscopy technique, most of the green laser light reflects back at the same wavelength that was sent, but a small fraction of the light interacts with the target molecules, changing the wavelength in proportion to the vibrational energy of the molecular bonds. By spectrally observing the returned Raman light, the identity of the minerals can be determined.[8][9]

IR spectrometer

The infrared spectrometer, provided by France, operates in the near-infrared (1.3 to 2.6 micrometers) wavelengths and its photodiodes, or detectors, are cooled by small thermoelectric coolers to ensure that they operate between -100°C and -50°C at all times.[7] This instrument will analyze many of the clay minerals and help unravel the history of liquid water on Mars.[1] The types of clay minerals and their abundances give clues about the nature of the water that was present, whether fresh or salty, acidic or neutral pH, whether it might have been icy or warm, and whether the water was present for a long period of time.[1] These are key questions to understand how habitable the surface environment was in the distant past.

Camera/telescope

SuperCam's optical camera acquires high-resolution color images of samples under study, which also help determine the surface geology. This camera can also study how atmospheric water and dust absorb or reflect solar radiation, which may help to develop weather forecasts.[4] SuperCam is also equipped with a microphone to capture the first audio recordings from the surface of Mars.[1] The microphone is the same model (Knowles Electret) as the ones that flew to Mars on the 1998 Mars Polar Lander and the 2007 Phoenix lander.[5] However, neither mission was able to record sounds.[5]

Spectrometers - Table

The detectors of all four spectrometers are cooled to just below 0°C by thermoelectric coolers. The photodiodes for the infrared (IR) spectrometer are further cooled to between -100°C and -50°C at all times.[7]

Spectrometer[7]Ultraviolet regionViolet regionVisible regionInfrared (IR) region
TypeCzerny-TurnerCzerny-TurnerTransmissionAcousto-Optic Tunable Filters
(AOTF)
LocationBodyBodyBodyMast
FunctionLIBSLIBS, and
VISIR (visible and IR)		Raman, LIBS, VISIRVISIR
DetectorCCDCCDICCDPhotodiode
Range (nm)240—340385—475535—8551300—2600
Nbr. channels204820486000256
Resolution0.20 nm0.20 nm0.3—0.4 nm30/cm
Field of view0.7 mrad0.7 mrad0.7 mrad1.15 mrad

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 'SuperCam' Update: Multi-purpose Instrument Coming Together for 2020 Launch to Mars. Roger Wiens, The Planetary Society. 27 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Update: SuperCam Will Detect Organic Materials. Himanshu Goenka, International Business Times. 26 September 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 SuperCam - For Scientists. NASA, Mars 2020 Rover. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 SuperCam. NASA, Mars 2020 Rover. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The SuperCam Remote Sensing Instrument Suite for the Mars 2020 Rover: A Preview. Roger C. Wiens, Sylvestre Maurice, Fernando Rull Perez. Spectroscopy. Volume 32, Issue 5, pg 50–55. 1 May 2017.
  6. 1 2 The Mars 2020 Rover features new spectral abilities with its new SuperCam. Optical Society of America. Published by PhysOrg. 25 September 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 The SuperCam Remote Sensing Instrument Suite for the Mars 2020 Rover: A Preview. Roger C. Wiens, Sylvestre Maurice, Fernando Rull Perez. Spectroscopy. Volume 32, Issue 5, pg 54. 1 May 2017.
  8. ↑ Gardiner, D.J. (1989). Practical Raman spectroscopy. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-50254-0.
  9. ↑ Martin, Francis L.; Stone, Nicholas; McAinsh, Martin R.; Walsh, Michael J.; Martin-Hirsch, Pierre L.; Gardner, Benjamin; Fullwood, Nigel J.; Esmonde-White, Karen; Dorney, Jennifer; Curtis, Kelly; Cinque, Gianfelice; Bird, Benjamin; Ashton, Lorna; Butler, Holly J. (April 2016). "Using Raman spectroscopy to characterize biological materials". Nature Protocols. 11 (4): 664–87. doi:10.1038/nprot.2016.036. PMID 26963630. Retrieved 2017-05-22.
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