ExoMars
ExoMars 2020 will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars equipped to search directly for signs of life. The Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA) is the largest instrument on board the rover and is specifically designed to Target chemical biosignatures (Vago et al., 2017). ABRADE has been designed to aid interpretation of data returned from MOMA by complementing ExoMars’ analytical objectives: analysing patterns and relationships between awide variety of organic species, measuring changes in the left to right balance (ee) of chiral molecules and investigating the inorganic reactions that could take place In the Martian regolith (Goesmann et al., 2017).
Goesmann, F., Brinckerhoff, W.B., Raulin, F., Goetz, W., Danell, R.M., Getty, S.A., Siljeström, S., Mißbach, H., Steininger, H. and Arevalo Jr, R.D. (2017) 'The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument: characterization of organic material in martian sediments', Astrobiology, 17(6-7), pp. 655-685.
Vago, J.L., Westall, F., Coates, A.J., Jaumann, R., Korablev, O., Ciarletti, V., Mitrofanov, I., Josset, J.-L., De Sanctis, M.C. and Bibring, J.-P. (2017) 'Habitability on early Mars and the search for biosignatures with the ExoMars Rover', Astrobiology, 17(6-7), pp. 471-510
