Spanish researchers working on Mars 2020 NASA scheme to study living conditions on red planet
Thursday, January 22, 2015 @ 12:05 PM
SPANISH investigators are taking part in a new NASA mission to Mars with a view to studying whether or not the red planet is habitable.
The scientific and technical team for the Mars 2020 project, led by Roger Wiens of Los Álamos National Laboratory, includes members of the French Space Agency (CNES), whose main investigator is Sylvestre Maurice, plus the universities of Hawaii and Valladolid in central Spain.
Professor Fernando Rull of Valladolid University is leading the Spanish team, which is made up of researchers from the universities of Madrid-Complutense, Málaga, Valencia and the Basque Country.
Their job is to test the calibration of the instrument which will be fitted to the outside of the NASA vehicle that will be left on Mars, both from Earth and later from the red planet itself.
The instrument is known as a SuperCam, and will analyse the materials on the surface of Mars from a distance using a spectroscope with laser-induced plasmas, a system known as LIBS, according to Dr Javier Laserna from Málaga University.
The techniques involved are aimed at studying the interaction between the electro-magnetic radiation of the material analysed by the SuperCam, using the LIBS system plus other types of spectroscope - Raman, fluorescent, infrared and visible - and then examining the high-definition colour images produced, plus the chemical makeup of the rocks.
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