Raman Characterization of the CanMars Rover Field Campaign Samples Using the Raman Laser Spectrometer ExoMars Simulator: Implications for Mars and Planetary Exploration.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed on February 18, 2021, and has started ground operations. The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will touch down on June 10, 2023. Perseverance will be the first-ever Mars sample caching mission-a first step in sample return to Earth. SuperCam and Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) on Perseverance, and Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) on Rosalind Franklin, will comprise the first ever in situ planetary mission Raman spectroscopy instruments to identify rocks, minerals, and potential organic biosignatures on Mars' surface. There are many challenges associated when using Raman instruments and the optimization and quantitative analysis of resulting data. To understand how best to overcome them, we performed a comprehensive Raman analysis campaign on CanMars, a Mars sample caching rover analog mission undertaken in Hanksville, Utah, USA, in 2016. The Hanksville region presents many similarities to Oxia Planum's past habitable conditions, including liquid water, flocculent, and elemental compounds (such as clays), catalysts, substrates, and energy/food sources for life. We sampled and conducted a complete band analysis of Raman spectra as mission validation analysis with the RLS ExoMars Simulator or RLS Sim, a breadboard setup representative of the ExoMars RLS instrument. RLS Sim emulates the operational behavior of RLS on the Rosalind Franklin rover. Given the high fidelity of the Mars analog site and the RLS Sim, the results presented here may provide important information useful for guiding in situ analysis and sample triage for caching relevant for the Perseverance and Rosalind Franklin missions. By using the RLS Sim on CanMars samples, our measurements detected oxides, sulfates, nitrates, carbonates, feldspars, and carotenoids, many with a higher degree of sensitivity than past results. Future work with the RLS Sim will aim to continue developing and improving the capability of the RLS system in the future ExoMars mission.

ExoMars Raman Laser Spectrometer: A Tool to Semiquantify the Serpentinization Degree of Olivine-Rich Rocks on Mars.

We evaluated the effectiveness of the ExoMars Raman laser spectrometer (RLS) to determine the degree of serpentinization of olivine-rich units on Mars. We selected terrestrial analogs of martian ultramafic rocks from the Leka Ophiolite Complex (LOC) and analyzed them with both laboratory and flight-like analytical instruments. We first studied the mineralogical composition of the samples (mostly olivine and serpentine) with state-of-the-art diffractometric (X-ray diffractometry [XRD]) and spectroscopic (Raman, near-infrared spectroscopy [NIR]) laboratory systems. We compared these results with those obtained using our RLS ExoMars Simulator. Our work shows that the RLS ExoMars Simulator successfully identified all major phases. Moreover, when emulating the automatic operating mode of the flight instrument, the RLS ExoMars Simulator also detected several minor compounds (pyroxene and brucite), some of which were not observed by NIR and XRD (e.g., calcite). Thereafter, we produced RLS-dedicated calibration curves (R2 between 0.9993 and 0.9995 with an uncertainty between ±3.0% and ±5.2% with a confidence interval of 95%) to estimate the relative content of olivine and serpentine in the samples. Our results show that RLS can be very effective in identifying serpentine, a scientific target of primary importance for the potential detection of biosignatures on Mars-the main objective of the ExoMars rover mission.

No detection of methane on Mars from early ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observations.

The detection of methane on Mars has been interpreted as indicating that geochemical or biotic activities could persist on Mars today1. A number of different measurements of methane show evidence of transient, locally elevated methane concentrations and seasonal variations in background methane concentrations2-5. These measurements, however, are difficult to reconcile with our current understanding of the chemistry and physics of the Martian atmosphere6,7, which-given methane's lifetime of several centuries-predicts an even, well mixed distribution of methane1,6,8. Here we report highly sensitive measurements of the atmosphere of Mars in an attempt to detect methane, using the ACS and NOMAD instruments onboard the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter from April to August 2018. We did not detect any methane over a range of latitudes in both hemispheres, obtaining an upper limit for methane of about 0.05 parts per billion by volume, which is 10 to 100 times lower than previously reported positive detections2,4. We suggest that reconciliation between the present findings and the background methane concentrations found in the Gale crater4 would require an unknown process that can rapidly remove or sequester methane from the lower atmosphere before it spreads globally.

Publisher Correction: No detection of methane on Mars from early ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observations.

The surname of author Cathy Quantin-Nataf was misspelled 'Quantin-Nata', authors Ehouarn Millour and Roland Young were missing from the ACS and NOMAD Science Teams list, and minor changes have been made to the author and affiliation lists; see accompanying Amendment. These errors have been corrected online.

The Close-Up Imager Onboard the ESA ExoMars Rover: Objectives, Description, Operations, and Science Validation Activities.

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 positioning. 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 collected 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.

Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars: A Mast-Mounted Instrument for the Rover.

ISEM (Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars) is a pencil-beam infrared spectrometer that will measure reflected solar radiation in the near infrared range for context assessment of the surface mineralogy in the vicinity of the ExoMars rover. The instrument will be accommodated on the mast of the rover and will be operated together with the panoramic camera (PanCam), high-resolution camera (HRC). ISEM will study the mineralogical and petrographic composition of the martian surface in the vicinity of the rover, and in combination with the other remote sensing instruments, it will aid in the selection of potential targets for close-up investigations and drilling sites. Of particular scientific interest are water-bearing minerals, such as phyllosilicates, sulfates, carbonates, and minerals indicative of astrobiological potential, such as borates, nitrates, and ammonium-bearing minerals. The instrument has an ∼1° field of view and covers the spectral range between 1.15 and 3.30 µm with a spectral resolution varying from 3.3 nm at 1.15 µm to 28 nm at 3.30 µm. The ISEM optical head is mounted on the mast, and its electronics box is located inside the rover's body. The spectrometer uses an acousto-optic tunable filter and a Peltier-cooled InAs detector. The mass of ISEM is 1.74 kg, including the electronics and harness. The science objectives of the experiment, the instrument design, and operational scenarios are described. Key Words: ExoMars-ISEM-Mars-Surface-Mineralogy-Spectroscopy-AOTF-Infrared. Astrobiology 17, 542-564.

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) Instrument: Characterization of Organic Material in Martian Sediments.

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument onboard the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars rover (to launch in July, 2020) will analyze volatile and refractory organic compounds in martian surface and subsurface sediments. In this study, we describe the design, current status of development, and analytical capabilities of the instrument. Data acquired on preliminary MOMA flight-like hardware and experimental setups are also presented, illustrating their contribution to the overall science return of the mission. Key Words: Mars-Mass spectrometry-Life detection-Planetary instrumentation. Astrobiology 17, 655-685.

Habitability on Early Mars and the Search for Biosignatures with the ExoMars Rover.

The second ExoMars mission will be launched in 2020 to target an ancient location interpreted to have strong potential for past habitability and for preserving physical and chemical biosignatures (as well as abiotic/prebiotic organics). The mission will deliver a lander with instruments for atmospheric and geophysical investigations and a rover tasked with searching for signs of extinct life. The ExoMars rover will be equipped with a drill to collect material from outcrops and at depth down to 2 m. This subsurface sampling capability will provide the best chance yet to gain access to chemical biosignatures. Using the powerful Pasteur payload instruments, the ExoMars science team will conduct a holistic search for traces of life and seek corroborating geological context information. Key Words: Biosignatures-ExoMars-Landing sites-Mars rover-Search for life. Astrobiology 17, 471-510.

Biosignatures on Mars: What, Where, and How? Implications for the Search for Martian Life.

UNLABELLED: The search for traces of life is one of the principal objectives of Mars exploration. Central to this objective is the concept of habitability, the set of conditions that allows the appearance of life and successful establishment of microorganisms in any one location. While environmental conditions may have been conducive to the appearance of life early in martian history, habitable conditions were always heterogeneous on a spatial scale and in a geological time frame. This "punctuated" scenario of habitability would have had important consequences for the evolution of martian life, as well as for the presence and preservation of traces of life at a specific landing site. We hypothesize that, given the lack of long-term, continuous habitability, if martian life developed, it was (and may still be) chemotrophic and anaerobic. Obtaining nutrition from the same kinds of sources as early terrestrial chemotrophic life and living in the same kinds of environments, the fossilized traces of the latter serve as useful proxies for understanding the potential distribution of martian chemotrophs and their fossilized traces. Thus, comparison with analog, anaerobic, volcanic terrestrial environments (Early Archean >3.5-3.33 Ga) shows that the fossil remains of chemotrophs in such environments were common, although sparsely distributed, except in the vicinity of hydrothermal activity where nutrients were readily available. Moreover, the traces of these kinds of microorganisms can be well preserved, provided that they are rapidly mineralized and that the sediments in which they occur are rapidly cemented. We evaluate the biogenicity of these signatures by comparing them to possible abiotic features. Finally, we discuss the implications of different scenarios for life on Mars for detection by in situ exploration, ranging from its non-appearance, through preserved traces of life, to the presence of living microorganisms. KEY WORDS: Mars-Early Earth-Anaerobic chemotrophs-Biosignatures-Astrobiology missions to Mars.