Constraining the source of chlorinated hydrocarbons detected on Mars with the SAM experiment onboard Curiosity

Imene Belmahdi (1) , Arnaud Buch (1) , Cyril Szopa (2) , Caroline Freissinet (3) , Daniel Glavin (3) , Pascaline François (4) , Patrice J. Coll (4) , J. Eigenbrode (3) , A. R. Navarro-Gonzalez (5) , T. Dequaire (4) , Maeva Millan (2) , S. Teinturier (3) , Jean-Yves Bonnet (6) , P. Mahaffy (3) , Michel Cabane (2)

1 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux - EA 4038
2 PLANETO - LATMOS
3 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
4 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
5 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico
6 LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales

Chlorinated compounds highlighted by SAM on Mars could have several origins: from perchlorate and/or MTBSTFA oxidation, from Tenax® degradation with or without presence of perchlorate and/or Martian organics. We have established a list of all the compounds likely to be produced by SAM contamination and compared it with all the compounds detected by SAM.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

Imene Belmahdi, Arnaud Buch, Cyril Szopa, Caroline Freissinet, Daniel Glavin, et al.. Constraining the source of chlorinated hydrocarbons detected on Mars with the SAM experiment onboard Curiosity. European Planetary Science Congress 2015, Sep 2015, Nantes, France. pp.EPSC2015-352. ⟨insu-01208044⟩