Site Identification and Sample Analysis with ExoMars Mission mock-up instruments on a Martian analogue site on Mt. Etna
- 1Università degli Studi di Bari, Bari, Italy (g.depalma26@studenti.uniba.it)
- 2Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany (anouk.ehreiser@gmail.com)
- 3University College London, London, United Kingdom (zcaplak@ucl.ac.uk)
- 4Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (leander.schlarmann@chello.at)
- 5Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program (LEAPS), Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
- 6European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) & International Lunar Exploration Working Group EuroMoonMars, European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, Netherlands
The landing site of the ExoMars 2022 mission is Oxia Planum, a basin rich in hydrated minerals located between Mawrth and Ares Vallis. Its clay-rich deposits of Noachian age have been covered by volcanic outflows, that have only recently started to erode away. This makes it more likely that biochemical markers have been preserved as they were shielded from long-term cosmic ray exposure.
Martian analogue sites are valuable testing-grounds for both instrumentation and scientific analysis. During the EuroMoonMars Etna campaign, mockups of ExoMars instruments were used to perform scientific analysis on a Martian Analogue site on Mt. Etna.
Satellite images are used to identify sites of interest on the slopes of Mt. Etna, mimicking the use of images and data from the MRO CTX, HiRISE, MEX HRSC and the CRISM spectrometer, to characterise the surface of Oxia Planum during the ExoMars Mission.
On the ground, Panoramic imaging and wide-angle photographs are used to select sites for close-up study with a mock-up of the Pancam instrument. Pancam is a set of two wide angle cameras for multi-spectral stereoscopic panoramic imaging, and a high resolution camera for colour imaging.
On selected sites, geological and biogeochemical markers are identified and characterized using Raman spectroscopy and optical microscopy, mimicking ExoMars’ onboard instruments RLS (Raman Laser spectrometer), and CLUPI (Close-up imager).
How to cite: de Palma, G., Ehreiser, A., Lakomiec, P., and Schlarmann, L.: Site Identification and Sample Analysis with ExoMars Mission mock-up instruments on a Martian analogue site on Mt. Etna, European Planetary Science Congress 2021, online, 13–24 Sep 2021, EPSC2021-760, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-760, 2021.
