Engineering topics

P. Sobron

Publications and source records attributed to P. Sobron.

5 records

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The first 300 sols of the SHERLOC investigation on the Mars 2020 rover

The Mars2020 mission is NASA’s latest flagship mission to Mars. The spacecraft launched in July 2020, and landed in Jezero crater on February 18, 2021 at the Octavia Butler Landing site. The rocks and sediments of Jezero crater have been argued to have preserved records of past, potentially habitable environments. The mission is characterizing the field site by analyzing chemistry, looking for organics and searching for potential biosignatures. The Scanning Habitable Environments with Ra-man and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) is a robotic arm mounted instrument. SHERLOC combines imaging with UV resonance Raman and native deep UV fluorescence spectroscopy to identify potential biosignatures and understand the aqueous history of the Jezero Region. WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering), a refight of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the Curiosity rover is capable of color imaging over a wide range of resolutions (from infinity to 13.1 micron/pixel) and is used for both science and engineering. A second imager, the Autofocusing Con-textual Imager (ACI), produces gray scale images at 10.1 micron/pixel resolution at a 48 mm range.

A. E. Murphy↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

SHERLOC: Results of the first 350 sols of operations

On February 18th 2021, the Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, Mars. This site was chosen because orbiter data analysis provides evidence that the crater hosted a stream-fed lake during the Martian Noachian period. The Octavia Butler landing site is located ~1.9 km east of the remnants of a river delta. Deltaic and lacustrine sediments can preserve biosignatures, making Jezero crater a prime target for Mars sample return science. One of the seven instruments on Perseverance’s science payload is SHERLOC –Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals. SHERLOC combines fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy with microscopic imaging to analyze surface material to better understand the history of the aqueous environments recorded in the rocks of Jezero crater and to search for potential biosignatures. SHERLOC imaging obtains high spatial resolution images of geological targets to identify grain-scale structure and texture. SHERLOC spectroscopy enables high-sensitivity detection, characterization, and spatially resolved correlation of trace organic materials. Native fluorescence emissions from aromatic organic species allow for detection and classification of aromatic organic molecules, whereas Raman scattered photons from molecules allow identification of functional groups of organics, chemicals, and minerals. In the first 300 sols, SHERLOC has analyzed 3 natural surfaces, and 5 abraded rock patches created during the Crater Floor Campaign within Jezero crater. SHERLOC has been able to identify phosphates, amorphous/microcrystalline silicate (AMS), olivine, sulfates, and carbonates in abraded patches in the green zone campaign within Jezero Crater Máaz and Séítah formations. Within these detections we have begun to tell the story of what this crater was like when it was full of liquid water over 3 billion years ago. In each of these samples we have identified fluorescence features that are likely aromatic organics native to the rock interiors. We have identified multiple unique fluorescence signatures, within each of the abraded patches. The organic signatures have either been widely distributed over an extended area, which is probably due to planetary wide dust, or have spatially resolved locations that are collocated with different mineral signatures. Note: Additional information available on attachment.

L. W. Beegle↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Residence Time and Trajectory as Constraints on Cloud-Based Habitability

Rocky, geologically active worlds with water, including Venus, are often considered potential origins for Earthlike biochemistries. They are also some of the likeliest worlds to have clouds.Yet the requirements for cloud habitability – the potential for aerobiospheres – is rarely studied. Earth's clouds carry significant numbers of active microbes (Amato et al., 2017), which affect planetary weather(as condensation and ice nuclei), climate (alteration of cloud and surface albedo), and water and air chemistry (through metabolic processing) (Delort et al., 2010).However, we have not yet observed airborne microbial reproduction in the field, and one likely reason is that microbes suspended in clouds on Earth have residence times at best equivalent to typical generation times – hours to days.

Residence↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Nephele: An Entry Probe & Sonde Concept for a Venus Ride-Along or Small Spacecraft Mission

Nephele is a Venus atmospheric descent probe concept designed to analyze cloud, haze, and dust particles. It combines a unique set of technologies (Figure 1): recently developed thermal protection materials (3D-CC and HEEET), aerosol sampling technologies with heritage in both planetary and airborne science (high-speed inlets and particle separation), and rapid, robust optical analysis instruments (such as the VOLTR dual spectrometer). Nephele is designed to be complentary to other efforts such as DAVINCI and Venera-D, which target Venus atmospheric gas analysis, by specifically targeting cloud and haze particles.

Nephele↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

AERACEPT (Aerosol Rapid Analysis Combined Entry Probe/sonde Technology): Design for Venus Aerosol Sampling

Aerosols (clouds, hazes, dusts) are drivers of key planetary processes, including mass and energy transfer; planetary climate evolution, as in the divergence of Venus and Earth; and are even of habitability interest, as Earth’s fog and cloud water have a substantial microbial presence. However, aerosols are highly dynamic, and once-in-a-lifetime flagship missions are not enough to fully characterize them. AERACEPT (AErosol Rapid Analysis Combined Entry Probe/sonde Technology) is an early-stage (TRL 2-3) technology combining the functions of an entry vehicle and aerosol-sampling passive descent sonde into a single aeroshell body. It is designed to reduce the mass, volume, and complexity of planetary aerosol science to within a small spacecraft footprint, allowing more frequent or concurrent missions. It is particularly well suited for a Venus mission, where the particles of greatest interest are within the subsonic descent regime, and is included in the Nephele mission concept study for a small spacecraft targeting Venus cloud and haze particles between 60 and 47 km.

Venus↗