The Close-Up Imager Onboard the ESA Exomars Rover: Objectives, Description, Operations, and Science Validation Activities Jean-Luc Josset, Frances Westall, Beda A
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The Close-Up Imager Onboard the ESA ExoMars Rover: Objectives, Description, Operations, and Science Validation Activities Jean-Luc Josset, Frances Westall, Beda A. Hofmann, John Spray, Charles Cockell, Stephan Kempe, Andrew D. Griffiths, Maria Cristina de Sanctis, Luigi Colangeli, Detlef Koschny, et al. To cite this version: Jean-Luc Josset, Frances Westall, Beda A. Hofmann, John Spray, Charles Cockell, et al.. The Close-Up Imager Onboard the ESA ExoMars Rover: Objectives, Description, Operations, and Science Validation Activities. Astrobiology, Mary Ann Liebert, 2017, 17 (6-7), pp.595 - 611. 10.1089/ast.2016.1546. hal-01618304 HAL Id: hal-01618304 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01618304 Submitted on 7 May 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. ASTROBIOLOGY ExoMars Rover Mission Volume 17, Numbers 6 and 7, 2017 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2016.1546 The Close-Up Imager Onboard the ESA ExoMars Rover: Objectives, Description, Operations, and Science Validation Activities Jean-Luc Josset,1 Frances Westall,2 Beda A. Hofmann,3,4 John Spray,5 Charles Cockell,6 Stephan Kempe,7 Andrew D. Griffiths,8 Maria Cristina De Sanctis,9 Luigi Colangeli,10 Detlef Koschny,10 Karl Fo¨llmi,11 Eric Verrecchia,12 Larryn Diamond,4 Marie Josset,1 Emmanuelle J. Javaux,13 Francesca Esposito,14 Matthew Gunn,15 Audrey L. Souchon-Leitner,1 Tomaso R.R. Bontognali,16 Oleg Korablev,17 Suren Erkman,18 Gerhard Paar,19 Stephan Ulamec,20 Fre´de´ric Foucher,2 Philippe Martin,21 Antoine Verhaeghe,1 Mitko Tanevski,1 and Jorge L. Vago10 Abstract The Close-Up Imager (CLUPI) onboard the ESA ExoMars Rover is a powerful high-resolution color camera specifically designed for close-up observations. Its accommodation on the movable drill allows multiple po- sitioning. The science objectives of the instrument are geological characterization of rocks in terms of texture, structure, and color and the search for potential morphological biosignatures. We present the CLUPI science objectives, performance, and technical description, followed by a description of the instrument’s planned operations strategy during the mission on Mars. CLUPI will contribute to the rover mission by surveying the geological environment, acquiring close-up images of outcrops, observing the drilling area, inspecting the top portion of the drill borehole (and deposited fines), monitoring drilling operations, and imaging samples col- lected by the drill. A status of the current development and planned science validation activities is also given. Key Words: Mars—Biosignatures—Planetary Instrumentation. Astrobiology 17, 595–611. 1. Introduction ExoMars (e.g., Vago et al., 2013; Vago et al., 2017) is a collaboration program between ESA and Roscosmos con- ollowing on the recent exploration successes of sisting of two missions, ExoMars 2016 and ExoMars 2020. FNASA’s 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and ExoMars 2016 was launched on March 14th, 2016 (e.g., Opportunity) and 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (Curios- Witasse et al., 2014), and consists of a Trace Gas Orbiter ity), ESA will contribute to further our understanding of (TGO) plus an entry, descent, and landing demonstrator Downloaded by 85.26.12.50 from www.liebertpub.com at 10/09/18. For personal use only. Mars with the launch of the 2020 ExoMars Rover. module (EDM, or Schiaparelli lander) that will land in 1Space Exploration Institute, Neuchaˆtel, Switzerland. 2Centre de Biophysique Mole´culaire, CNRS, Orle´ans, France. 3Natural History Museum Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 4Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 5Planetary and Space Science, University of New Brunswick, New Brunswick, Canada. 6UK Center for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. 7Institute of Applied Geosciences, Technische Universita¨t Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. 8University College London, London, United Kingdom. 9Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Roma, Italy. 10ESA, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. 11Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Institut des sciences de la Terre, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. 12Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. 13De´partement de Ge´ologie, UR GEOLOGY, University of Lie`ge, Lie`ge, Belgium. 14Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli, Italy. 15Department of Physics, Aberystwyth University, Wales, United Kingdom. 16Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. 17Space Research Institute, IKI, Moscow, Russia. 18Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. 19Joanneum Research, Graz, Austria. 20DLR, Space Operations, MUSC, Cologne, Germany. 21LPC2E, Orle´ans, France. 595 596 JOSSET ET AL. FIG. 1. CLUPI working team organization. CLUPI, close-up imager. Meridiani Planum. ExoMars 2020 will land an instrumented In this article, we focus on the CLUPI instrument, which rover on Mars. is being developed through international and multidisci- The overall ExoMars objectives are twofold: (i) tech- plinary science and technical teams, as illustrated in Fig. 1. nology demonstration and (ii) scientific investigations. The CLUPI instrument is being developed by a Swiss– The technology demonstration comprises the entry, de- French consortium supported by the Swiss Space Office and scent, and landing of a payload on the surface of Mars the French Space Agency CNES under the PI (Principal (ExoMars 2016); surface mobility with a rover; access to Investigator) leadership of Jean-Luc Josset with Frances the subsurface to acquire samples; and sample preparation, Westall and Beda Hofmann as Co-PIs. The science team Downloaded by 85.26.12.50 from www.liebertpub.com at 10/09/18. For personal use only. distribution, and analysis (ExoMars 2020). The scientific consists of scientists from Europe, Canada, and Russia who investigations are aimed at the search for signs of past and offer a broad range of expertise, including biosignature rec- present life on Mars, the study of how the water and geo- ognition, geology, microbiology, and geomorphology, as well chemical environments vary with subsurface depth (up to a as technical aspects related to CLUPI operations. few meters) (ExoMars 2020), and the analysis of martian The following sections describe the CLUPI science ob- atmospheric trace gases and identification of their sources jectives and performances, design, and operations, as well (ExoMars 2016). as its development status and planned science validation The ExoMars Rover has a nominal mission duration of activities. 218 sols (approximately seven Mars months). The rover is equipped with a drill for subsurface sample collection. It 2. CLUPI Science Objectives and Performances also includes the Pasteur suite of instruments: PanCam 2.1. Science objectives (panoramic camera; two wide-angle cameras, WACs; and a high-resolution camera, HRC), CLUPI (Close-Up Imager), CLUPI is a camera system designed to acquire high- ISEM (infrared spectrometer for ExoMars), WISDOM (a resolution, color close-up images of outcrops, rocks, soils, ground-penetrating radar), ADRON (a neutron detector for drill fines, and drill core samples. The visual information determining subsurface hydration), Ma_MISS (Mars Mul- obtained by CLUPI will be similar to what geologists would tispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies), MicrOmega (Vis- obtain by visual observation and by using a hand lens. IR imaging spectrometer for mineralogy studies), RLS CLUPI will acquire images of rock and unconsolidated (Raman Laser Spectrometer), and MOMA (Mars Organic materials, including dust, regolith, and float rocks (i.e., un- Molecule Analyzer). attached rocks) with fields of view (FOVs) ranging from CLUPI INSTRUMENT ONBOARD ESA EXOMARS ROVER 597 1.9 · 1.3 cm at 10–cm distance from the target (7 mm/pixel CLUPI color images will be indispensable for identifying resolution) to, for instance, 104.4 · 44.4 cm at 500-cm dis- visible minerals. While geochemical mineral identification tance (resolution 394 mm/pixel) since CLUPI can focus to will be made on powdered core samples, thus losing context infinity. These images will provide visual information of and original grain shape and size, CLUPI will provide im- structure and texture of the abovementioned materials and, ages of the minerals within their original context, enabling specifically, of in situ rocks to establish rock type, facies, the grains to be observed within their matrix, as well as and context stratigraphy in the area of study with the pri- other features of importance for interpreting the nature of a mary aim of interpreting the environment of formation/ rock and its mode of formation, such as the textural rela- deposition of the rocks and thus the potentially habitable tionship of specific grain types to other types, frequency of paleoenvironment. The CLUPI images will complement occurrence of certain grain types, variability in grain size and those provided by PanCam (Coates et al., 2017), thus giving shape, and the