Perseverance rover with Thales laser will land on Mars… tomorrow!

After a long seven-month voyage NASA’s Perseverance rover will land on Mars tomorrow, with our laser as part of the SuperCam: its eyes! This laser can determine the chemical and organic composition of Martian rock samples, and will help look for potential signs of life on the Red Planet.

The SuperCam is one of seven strategic onboard instruments, a powerful combination of technologies designed to analyse, characterise and select Martian rock samples. It is the result of close collaboration between partners across the international scientific community. And the powerful Thales laser inside is actually the second laser we have provided for NASA to take to Mars!

8 years of Curiosity

In 2012, Curiosity landed on Mars equipped with the first high-power laser to operate on the surface of another planet, a laser designed and developed by us for the ChemCam instrument. The ChemCam laser has been operating faultlessly for over eight years and has fired close to 855,000 shots to date as Curiosity has made its 24-kilometre trek across the surface of the Red Planet. Data from the ChemCam has already helped to prove that conditions on Mars were once suitable for microbial life.

Next level SuperCam laser

The SuperCam instrument, a new and more powerful version of the ChemCam, is designed to take Mars exploration to a new level. Like the ChemCam, the SuperCam laser will use an infrared beam to heat material to a temperature of around 10,000°C and vaporise it — a method called laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. Coupled with a special camera, this makes it possible to determine the chemical composition of Martian rock samples by measuring the colours of light in the plasma created.

Signs of life

Unlike the ChemCam, however, the SuperCam laser can not only emit a red but also a green laser beam, which will help determine the molecular composition of surface materials. This green beam excites the chemical bonds in samples and produces a different signal according to their various linked components. This analysis technique (Raman spectroscopy) will be tested for the first time on Mars and will enable scientists to detect any markers of life. The green laser will also be used to induce fluorescence in mineral and organic compounds, allowing scientists to determine their constituent components with greater accuracy.

So… Let’s find out if there is life on mars!