Mars Science Laboratory

Michel Cabane (1)

1 PLANETO - LATMOS

Mars Science Laboratory is a large instrumented vehicle (rover) built by NASA that landed on Mars in August 2012 (launched November 2011) and will operate for more than 1 Martian year (i.e., 2 Earth years). This rover, also called Curiosity, characterizes and interprets the geology of the landing region at all scales, assesses the biological potential of encountered targets, investigates planetary processes of relevance to past habitability, and characterizes radiation arriving at Mars’ surface. Aboard MSL, an analytical laboratory is especially devoted to atmospheric analysis and search for organics in the ground.

Keywords: Atmosphere; Biomarkers; Chlorohydrocarbons; Curiosity; Derivatization; Gale; GC-MS; In situ; Mars; Mars Science Laboratory; Methane; MSL; Organics; Pyrolysis; Regolith; Rover

Domains: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

Michel Cabane. Mars Science Laboratory. Ricardo Amils, Muriel Gargaud, José Cernicharo Quintanilla, Henderson James Cleaves, William M. Irvine, Daniele Pinti, Michel Viso. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 18 p., 2015, ISBN : 978-3-642-27833-4. ⟨10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1758-4⟩. ⟨insu-01162982⟩