SuperCam

SuperCam is a suite of remote-sensing instruments for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission that performs remote analyses of rocks and soils with a camera, two lasers and four spectrometers to seek organic compounds that could hold biosignatures of past microbial life on Mars, if it ever existed there.

SuperCam was developed in collaboration between the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) of the University of Toulouse in France, the French Space Agency (CNES), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Hawaii and the University of Málaga in Spain. The Principal Investigator is Roger Wiens from Los Alamos National Laboratory. SuperCam is an improved version of the successful ChemCam instruments of the Curiosity rover that have been upgraded with two different lasers and detectors. SuperCam is used in conjunction with the AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) targeting system, a program in which Vandi Verma, NASA roboticist and engineer, helped develop.

In April 2018, SuperCam entered the final stages of assembly and testing. The flight model was installed to the rover in June 2019. The rover mission was launched on 30 July 2020.

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