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A small piece of Yvelines landed on Mars with the Perseverance robot

2021-02-26T09:07:24.049Z


For the past few days, the NASA robot has been surveying the red planet in search of traces of life. One of its vision tools, called SuperCa


They made the robot's “eyes”.

After seven months of interplanetary travel and 480 million kilometers traveled, the Perseverance rover landed safely on the planet Mars, at the level of the Jezero crater, on February 18.

To scan the ground for ancient traces of life, the rover is equipped with seven instruments.

Among them, the SuperCam machine was developed in part by researchers from Latmos, the Atmospheres, Environments, Spatial Observations Laboratory, of the Versailles-Saint-Quentin Observatory, in Guyancourt (Yvelines).

Cité de l'Espace, in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).

Replica of the Perseverance robot, which landed on Mars on February 18.

LP / Remy Gabalda  

"This tool makes it possible to see and hear on the red planet", explains Franck Montmessin, research director at CNRS and Latmos.

To develop SuperCam, eight French laboratories participated in the project with the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), NASA and several industrial groups.

In particular the Thalès group, based next door, in Elancourt.

"They manufactured the laser which constitutes the heart of SuperCam, it is a real feat because the device must withstand temperatures down to minus 90 degrees", specifies the research director.

A microphone transmits Martian sounds

At Latmos, seven engineers worked on the instrument between 2013 and 2019. Concretely, “they were interested in a process that analyzes Martian matter on the surface”.

Because the purpose of the operation is to know if life forms could have existed on this planet.

“It's been ten years since we observed water in the form of ice and carbonated, continues Franck Montmessin.

But so far, we haven't found stable liquid water on Mars, because its climate does not allow it.

"

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VIDEO.

Perseverance on Mars: NASA broadcasts Martian sound and images of the landing

For the first time, the robot is equipped with a microphone to transmit the sounds of Mars.

The Latmos did not take care of that part but the noise of the wind could be recorded at the beginning of the week.

It was only natural that the Guyancourt laboratory was offered the opportunity to join the Perseverance adventure.

He has already collaborated on several missions on the red planet and, since the end of the 1980s, the Latmos has become "one of the laboratories most involved in the exploration of Mars".

"The first project was carried out in collaboration with the USSR in the 1980s, then we almost returned in the 1990s, but the mission ended in failure," says Franck Montmessin.

The laboratory also associated with the ExoMars mission

On the Curiosity robot, big brother of Perseverance which has been exploring Mars since August 2012, the laboratory had also participated in its development.

“Since the arrival of Curiosity, Latmos has been very involved in analyzing data from the SAM instrument, which collects pieces of the soil for analysis, in particular looking for organic matter.

"

Beyond exploration, Perseverance will be used to collect around thirty samples that will be recovered and brought back to Earth, by two missions involving the United States and Europe, by 2031. “These samples will be transferred from the surface of Mars to a satellite placed in orbit by a small rocket.

Then this satellite will return to the Earth's surface and drop the samples in a specific location.

"

The laboratory, which had already been talked about with the launch of its minisatellite aboard the SpaceX rocket earlier this year or through its participation in the Rosetta / Philae mission, will also be there for the next European mission. ExoMars in 2022.

Source: leparis

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