NASA installs a SuperCam instrument on its March 2020 rover

NASA's March 2020 rover is slowly emerging. After adding stereoscopic navigation cameras and rover prototype wheels, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers have attached the SuperCam Mast unit to the rover. This essential equipment will allow Mars 2020 to analyze samples remotely, looking for signs of life.

The SuperCam is mounted on one side of the mas unit. NASA seems to encourage the personification of its robots with all the selfies. You will probably think it's the "head" of the rover. Curiosity has the same mast design, but its instrument is known as ChemCam.

The Curiosity instrument is equipped with Laser Induced Degradation Spectroscopy (LIBS) and a Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope. As its name indicates, the SuperCam is a more advanced version of the ChemCam. It has a LIMS, a Raman spectrophotometer, an IR spectrophotometer and a telephoto camera. The SuperCam is a collaboration between American, French and Spanish researchers. The last component, the IR spectrophotometer, arrived from France a few weeks ago, allowing JPL to complete the SuperCam installation.

According to NASA, the SuperCam will allow Mars 2020 to analyze samples for signs of life, even if they died millions of years ago. The SuperCam can focus on a pencil sample located more than 6 meters away. So, back-to-Earth controllers will not need to make so many small adjustments to the March 2020 position to scan a new sample.

The March 2020 rover will have 23 cameras in total.

In the coming weeks, JPL engineers will install the Mars 2020 Sample Caching System. This device will use 17 separate motors to collect Martian soil samples and store them in the mobile. There are vague plans to send a follow-up mission one day to collect these samples and send them back to Earth.

NASA plans to launch March 2020 next summer – it will then have a real name. Arrived at Mars in February 2021, the rover will land in the Jezero crater with a rocket sled almost identical to that of Curiosity. Once on the surface, Mars 2020 will be able to search for biosignatures that would not go unnoticed by Curiosity. NASA is planning a mission lasting at least one Martian year (just under two years). If it looks like Curiosity, it will work much longer.

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