The intrepid ExoMars rover (Image: ESA)
TO A Martian, Iceland鈥檚 volcanic landscape might look a bit like home. No wonder the camera for the next Mars rover just did a test run there.
The is set to travel aboard the European Space Agency鈥檚 rover in 2018. 鈥淚t looks like a three-eyed monster,鈥� says , a planetary scientist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Two 鈥渆yes鈥�, on the right and left of the unit, scan the terrain for noteworthy features. They also switch between filters set to different wavelengths in order to pick up subtle spectral properties of minerals 鈥� a clue to their composition. Nestling between the two is a high-resolution camera.
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聯It looks like a three-eyed monster, with an eye on either side to scan for noteworthy features聰
Once the rover arrives on Mars in January 2019, it will for soil samples. In their structure and chemical make-up, these could hold important clues to any early Martian life. Choosing promising spots to drill is tricky, however.
That鈥檚 where PanCam comes in. Its multispectral eyes will search the local rocks for signs that the environment is hospitable to life, or was in the past. Clay minerals, for example, would have formed in the presence of liquid water, while certain sulphates might suggest the soil is too acidic for life to thrive.
The three-eyed monster intended for the ExoMars rover and the Red Planet (Image: C. Cousins)
To see if PanCam is up to the task, Cousins鈥檚 team took a prototype to N谩mafjall, a volcanic region in north-east Iceland. There, they mounted the camera at roughly its operating height on the rover, and made it survey the region. Lab testing of samples collected in Iceland helped to confirm that the camera picked out important minerals correctly (Icarus, doi.org/34v).
The team hopes to test the camera at other Mars-like spots on Earth 鈥� a good idea, says at the University of Colorado in Boulder. 鈥淔or science, more tests should be completed in other environments,鈥� he says, like places with where ancient life might be preserved in sediment. 鈥淭his might be the more likely type of environment in which ExoMars will land.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚celand doubles for Red Planet in camera test鈥�
