ExoMars 2022: The Kazachok lander and Rosalind Franklin rover
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How will Kazachok study the surface of Mars?
Once on Mars, the Rosalind rover will drive off Kazachok via ramps and move on to perform scientific investigations while Kazachok will remain stationary to image and study changes in the immediate surroundings for at least one Earth year.
Three spectrometers onboard will analyze the composition of the atmosphere and quantify the amount of water vapor in it. Kazachok will also monitor seasonal variations in the dust environment, and air and soil temperatures. Further, it will measure local magnetic fields using a magnetometer, study the planet’s internal structure using radio science experiments and a seismometer, look for underground water, and monitor radiation levels.
The landing site of ExoMars 2022
In order to increase the chances of the Rosalind rover finding signatures of past martian life, ESA went through a rigorous process to select its landing site over six years. The rover will explore the Oxia Planum region of Mars, a 3.9 billion years old clay-rich area surrounded by ancient valley systems, all strongly hinting at a watery past. Notably, Oxia Planum was a candidate landing site for NASA’s Perseverance rover.
There are signs of volcanic activity in the region, which may have overlaid the clay and other aqueous deposits. This could’ve preserved any life imprints below the surface, protected against the planet’s harsh radiation environment. These deposits have been exposed by erosion only within the last few hundred million years, giving the Rosalind rover a great opportunity to look for preserved remnants of microbial life.
How will the Rosalind rover look for signs of past life on Mars?
The six-wheeled Rosalind rover is designed to travel long distances in Oxia Planum over the length of its mission. Two panoramic stereo cameras and a high-resolution imager on its mast will help identify the best sites for the rover’s comprehensive instruments to analyze in detail. Aiding this task would be the rover’s infrared spectrometer, which will identify rocks altered by water in Mars’ past and water-bearing minerals on them.
For the most intriguing of such rocks, the rover will closely inspect them at sub-centimeter scale––like a geologist with a hand lens––to help scientists better understand the chain of events that formed and shaped these rocks. This closeup imager can also identify preserved biofilm traces of any ancient microbial colonies that might have thrived in a watery environment.
Since finding signatures of past Martian life is likelier below the surface, as that affords protection from surface radiation, the Rosalind rover has a 2-meter (~6.6 feet) drill to collect deeper samples than any previous Mars mission. Further, unlike other missions which rely on surface imagery and data to select areas to drill, the Rosalind rover will also use ground-penetrating radar to let scientists see up to 3 meters (~9.8 feet) underground. It will also employ its neutron spectrometer to detect hydrogen — an indirect sign of water — to locate promising underground water-rich deposits. Having such holistic information about all promising locations will help scientists find optimal drilling points.
While the Rosalind rover drills Mars’ surface, a miniature spectrometer embedded inside the drill will image the walls of the borehole and determine its mineral makeup, providing scientists context for the collected samples. Once the rover has collected a drill sample, three spectrometers will study it in microscopic detail.
A visible-plus-infrared spectrometer will identify molecules and water-bearing minerals in the samples, helping scientists determine if the region was ever habitable. A Raman spectrometer will detect organic molecules within the samples, providing direct information on if Mars had specific organic compounds related to microbial life as we know it. Lastly, a gas chromatograph will detect even small concentrations of organic molecules in the samples, and determine their chirality, a chemical property, to tell us if they formed because of microbial life or by natural means.
The Rosalind rover thus provides us an unprecedented and promising shot at finding out if microbial life existed and thrived on Mars.
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