University of Western Ontario

Published purpose

The goal of this project is to better constrain the formation of clay minerals on Mars through Mars analogue missions deployed at three clay-bearing terrestrial field sites with two comparable EMRF (ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission) instruments. This project aims to provide insights into further development and validation of these instruments and train the next generation of planetary explorers. The objectives of this work are to provide additional inputs into the design and validation of the instrument “Enfys” – the newly funded spectrometer replacing the former Russian ISEM instrument, to develop mission procedures and protocols tailored for identifying and characterizing clays with Enfys with PanCam (Panoramic Camera), and to determine if the mineral/spectral characteristics of clays collected from different geologic settings are sufficiently distinct to differentiate between different clay-formation scenarios. The analogue missions will be executed at three field sites: one meteorite impact, a volcanic site and one surface weathering site.