PTAL sample used to simulate ExoMars operations!

From November 30 to December 2, the ExoMars team organized one of a series of simulations to prepare the whole ExoMars project to the surface observations of Mars, once the Rosalind Franklin rover will have landed in 2023.

The operations simulated the analysis of a drilled sample by the three instruments in the belly of the rover: MicrOmega, RLS and MOMA, doing respectively NIR imaging spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Laser Desorption Gas Chromatography. To try to simulate as much as possible what we expect to find at Oxia Planum, the ExoMars landing site, the ExoMars project used one of the PTAL samples to provide data during the simulation! It was one of the samples from the Granby region, selected rightfully for its spectral proximity with orbital data of the surface of Oxia Planum. Data in the simulation looked very promising and we would love to see such a nice rock sampled on Mars!